


wake me up

by frorals



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, And sarcasm, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Kind of slow burn I guess?, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, jercy - Freeform, lots of feelings, percabeth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-05-05 14:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5378459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frorals/pseuds/frorals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Percy collides into Jason - quite literally - they find themselves slowly falling in love. Everything isn't always as simple as it seems, though, because Percy's ex-girlfriend, Annabeth, shows up and things get complicated. Already faced with the challenges of college and growing up, Percy must choose between his past and his future. (AU Jercy & slight Percabeth)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. dreaming without blinking

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so if this story looks vaguely familiar it's probably because I posted this on fanfiction.net. However, after completing it, I realized some things turned out different than what I wanted so I'm rewriting a good portion of it so, that the sequel(?) can fit the idea I have in my head. With that said, enjoy. :)

Percy had been cleaning his dorm room when he found it.

A small baby blue elastic hairband, no thicker than his wrist. It was a small thing, really, which didn't explain the tidal wave of emotions that hit him at the sight of it. He could feel his throat constricting, his body struggling to get air inside of his lungs.

Flashes of blonde curls. Late night phone calls, soft breathing echoing in his ear. Grey eyes and oh God, he was going to be sick. In his post-hangover state, it was all too much to handle and his poor hands were shaking uncontrollably.

He had to get out.

Placing a hand on the wall to steady himself, Percy internally cursed the stupid university for having community bathrooms for all the boys in the dorm building – it’d be much more convenient if he could throw up in the safety of his own bathroom. He doubted he could make it to the toilet to hurl what he'd hastily scarfed down during his severe case of the munchies. He considered himself lucky if he even made it out of his room.

Gathering himself, Percy swung open and was prepared to make a mad dash to the bathroom before he slammed into someone, falling to the ground with a quiet 'oomph'.

"Dude, are you okay?"

Percy stared blankly at the floor beneath him. What was he supposed to tell this stranger? Yeah, I just thought about my ex and had a panic attack, I'm doing fine. How are you?

"Ouch," Percy looked up at the person and was strikingly aware that he was blonde. Because no one was as freaking lucky as Percy. "That must suck with the whole ex thing... I'm doing great, though. Thanks for asking."

"Oh, shit, did I say that out loud?"

The blonde laughed, the corner of his eyes crinkling. "Yes, you did. I'm Jason Grace, by the way." He offered a hand down to Percy, who stared at it and Jason briefly wondered if this green-eyed boy sprawled on the floor had ever received a helping hand before.

Percy blinked and realized this Jason kid was holding his hand out to lift him up. His cheeks flushed as he put his own hand in Jason's, the blonde easily hoisting him up with one hand. Percy inwardly groaned. He really needed to start working out again. This guy was making him feel like he was five-years-old again and Percy was not a fan of his childhood. Or any other part of his life for that matter, but that was beside the point. Jason had muscle and Percy had - well, flab.

Mustering up his most charming smile, Percy grinned, a dimple popping up on his cheek. "I'm the infamous Percy Jackson, but that's a really long name so you can just call me Percy." He said cheekily, finding himself smirking a bit when Jason quirked an eyebrow and he really took the chance to check him out.

The blonde was easily considered sexy and Percy didn't even bat for the other team. Jason had those strong pronounced cheekbones that all the girls loved, crystal blue eyes that matched the sky (Percy really wasn't trying to sound cliché but that was the best comparison he could come up with, unless you considered the cerulean crayon in the Crayola box), and a cute little scar above his lip. Basically, Jason was an Abercrombie model without the Abercrombie - he wore Hollister, made obvious by the eagle spreading its wings and invisibly shitting all over his white T-shirt that clung to his muscular arms. 

Okay, yeah, he really needed to get to the bathroom to reevaluate his life.

"Wow, you actually had me swooning there for a moment," Jason said, sarcasm oozing from his voice. Though, in retrospect, he really had meant it. How could he not swoon when there was a flirty and cute green-eyed boy in front of him?

"Oh please, you probably were swooning the moment you saw me." Percy scoffed, rolling his eyes. "What can I say? I'm irresistible."

"Not from the way you were curled up on the floor earlier. I thought you were having cramps or something."

Jason let out a laugh - he seemed to be doing that a lot around this boy - at the sight of Percy feigning hurt, the older boy clutching his heart in mock pain.

"That really stung, Grace."

"Since when did we start addressing each other by last name?" The blonde inquired, genuinely intrigued by this Percy character. He found it baffling how he could change so quickly from panic to pain to teasing him, a hint of a smile playing at his lips.

"Since five minutes ago," Percy answered flippantly and then quickly stuck his head inside his room to check the time on his alarm clock since they were still standing by the doorway where they collided into each other. His green eyes widened as he became aware of the time. It was the beginning of the spring semester and if he didn't get a move on it, he'd be flunking yet another one of his classes. And Percy hated seeing his mother's disappointed face whenever he told her he was failing.

"Shit, I'm almost late for class, gotta go. See you around, Grace." Percy told the blonde with a wink before proceeding to slam the door in Jason's face. He shook his head from inside the room and opened the door again, giving the blonde an apologetic smile. "Where are my manners? Have a good day, Jason!"

And then he shut the door, expecting to shut Jason out of his life as well, but that was all thrown out of the window as Percy sat down in a seat in the back row of his new Latin class, thinking that the bearded teacher in a wheelchair seemed too out of place to even teach at a university when a familiar blonde head strolled into the classroom like freaking Prince Charming and plopped down in the seat next to him.

Now how the hell was Percy supposed to pass this class sitting next to someone like Jason Grace?

Jason found himself sneaking nervous glances at the black-haired boy sitting beside him, wondering vaguely if he looked like a stalker. Something about this Percy guy made him smile like an idiot and Jason wasn't one to convey his emotions easily, a habit he'd picked up as he got older. Sometimes it was easier to put on a poker face and yet, his poker face was just a face whenever he looked at Percy. And probably a sad face at that.

He knew that Percy was a natural flirt - it was just his personality - but when Jason thought about their earlier conversation, he got butterflies in his stomach and no, he did not have a crush on Percy Jackson and the fact that it was him of all people was bad enough already. The guy could barely think about his ex-girlfriend (or hopefully, ex-boyfriend) without having a panic attack, which meant that he was probably still in love with her (or him), and then, there was the whole 'he might not even be gay' thing problem and Jason refused to make an ass of himself. He'd rather stick a fork into an electrical outlet than be rejected by Percy Jackson.

Speaking of whom, was currently tapping his pencil on Jason's desk, attempting to attract the blonde's attention. He glanced over at Percy, "What?"

"Have you even been paying attention?" Percy asked incredulously, waving the packet of papers he held in his hands in front of Jason's face.

He ducked his head to hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks. "No?"

Percy made a weird strangled sound and threw his head back, letting out a deep sigh. "Well, Grace, we have to finish this packet that our teacher oh-so-graciously handed out on the first day and have it turned in by the end of class. Oh God, this is like high school all over again. And do you know how much I hated high school, Jason?"

The look Percy was giving him - green eyes narrowed intentionally on him like he expected an answer - made said boy squeak out a shaky, "No."

"It was a rhetorical question, but a lot, my friend," Percy replied, swiftly taking his pencil into his deft hands and tapping it twice against his desk. "Anyways, I figured you'd be better at this Latin stuff than me - you look like you were valedictorian -"

Jason sat up a bit straighter. "I was."

" - so I expect every answer that I copy from you to be correct." Percy finished, giving him a look that meant business.

Jason's mouth fell open. Did Percy really think that he'd just simply let him copy every answer from him? He was cute, but he wasn't that good looking.

"I can't believe you." Jason stated.

Percy frowned, confusion settling on his face. "What?"

"You really expect me to let you copy the answers off of me?"

Percy shrugged. "Well, yeah, I mean - "

"Percy, do you understand how hard I worked my ass off to get here? All those years of honors and AP classes I had to take while you just have it handed to you on a silver platter?" Jason shook his head and quickly snatched his paper out of Percy’s hands. "No way."

"Oh," Percy's eyes fell to his desk, the corners of his mouth tilting downwards. "It's fine, I guess I'll find someone else to work with... Someone else who smells like Hollister and is really smart and is maybe kind of cute. They shouldn't be that hard to find..." Green eyes quickly darted up to meet blue.

And damn, if Percy though he was cute, maybe Jason should let him copy the answers he'd already hastily written on his paper. But that was it.

Sighing, Jason pointedly looked at Percy, "Okay, but - hey!"

In an instant, the green-eyed boy had swiped Jason's papers from his desk, his hand flying across his own papers as he transferred the blonde's answers. Jason tried to reach for his own packet, but Percy saw it coming and blocked his arm, still writing.

Huffing, the blonde sat back in his seat, "Whatever, Jackson, just make sure you paraphrase - "

"I have no idea what that means!"

"Change the words a bit," Jason corrected himself, glaring at the boy beside him. "I don't need the teacher finding out you cheated-"

Percy glanced around the room before whispering pretty loudly to the blonde. "Say it any louder, will you?"

"I mean, this is college, Percy," Jason continued, biting his lip nervously. "The stakes are higher."

"Loosen up a bit, Jay," the black-haired teen smirked at him, his dimples appearing. "I've got this. I'm a pro!"

And then two hands were grabbing both packets off of Percy's desk, Mr. Brunner tssk-ing in disapproval as he observed the work on the papers. "Mr. Jackson, if you're going to be lazy in my class, don't be lazy while you're being lazy. Please write in full sentences."

Jason groaned and glared even harder at the green-eyed boy, who smiled sheepishly at the teacher.

"Sorry, I got a cramp in my hand," Percy flat out lied and despite the fact that Jason was totally against the idea of lying, he found himself laughing beside him.

"And Mr. Grace, next time please don't give your work to another student or more specifically, Percy Jackson," Mr. Brunner called as he rolled his wheelchair down the aisle away from the pair of boys. "Both of you get a zero for the first grade in the gradebook."

Jason probably should've been upset by being caught in the act of cheating, but somehow he found it to okay if that meant that Percy Jackson would keep smiling at him like he was the coolest thing in the world.

"You're a pro alright," Jason said sarcastically as class ended and they were packing up to leave, sneaking a quick look at Percy.

He grinned, running a hand through his 'sex hair' as Jason called it. "Well, I'm a pro at other things." Percy said, slinking his arm around the blonde's shoulders. "Catch ya later, Grace."

Jason stopped breathing for a moment at the contact and was the room tilting? When he finally blinked and overcame his vertigo, Percy had already swung his backpack over his shoulder and was waltzing out of the classroom and wow, he had a nice ass.


	2. imagination playing tricks on me

Jason gripped the edges of his plastic lunch tray, turning away from the lunch bar. He felt like he was back in high school again as his electric blue eyes searched the huge cafeteria for his friends. He found them huddled at a table near the vegetarian food area and settled down next to Piper, who was too busy having some playful argument with the latino boy across from her to notice the blond sliding in the seat next to her.

"Jason," Leo said, clutching his brown curls dramatically, "please tell her—" he pointed at Piper "—that MTV is more than a channel promoting sex! They have good shows, right?"

Jason shrugged, popping a French fry into his mouth as he put an arm around Piper's shoulders. "I don't know, man. I'm not really into MTV." He ignored the finger that he received in response.

"Thank you, Jason!" Piper exclaimed, her kaleidoscope eyes turning a shade of blue, reflecting Jason's. "Leo doesn't know what real television is."

Leo scoffed, "And what is? Pretty Little Liars?"

Jason rolled his eyes. Really, he didn't understand their love-hate relationship. 

They were like a married couple, always teasing and annoying each other purposely. Still, Jason knew that they were pretty close, almost like brother and sister. Leo did care about Piper, though – Jason remembered the Latino complaining about the brunette's ex-boyfriend, Dylan, saying that he was a self-absorbed jerk. And then Leo dragged the blond with him to comfort Piper when they broke up, the three of them watching all of Piper's favorite movies and eating ice cream straight out of the carton. Yeah, they were bad ass like that.

Speaking of asses, the blond began to think about an ass that belonged to the one and only Percy Jackson. He could already imagine things he'd do to him, grabbing his ass in his hands and –

"Jason."

"Huh?" The blonde raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look at Piper, who was giving him a questioning look.

"Are you okay, dude?" Leo asked, concern written all over his elfin features. "You just totally blanked out. I thought you were going to have a seizure or something."

Jason blushed, shaking his head quickly. "No, I was just thinking about ... someone."

"Awww!" Piper cooed, reaching over to ruffle Jason's hair. He shot her a warning look and desperately tried to fix it before Percy saw him with his hair sticking up in all directions. "Do you want to talk about him? Is he your new boyfriend?"

Of course, his best friends knew he was gay, but that wasn't something Jason mentioned to everyone. It was an insider only his close friends and family knew, and even if he was totally gay, Jason was still wary to let people know. He didn't want people to treat him differently because he liked boys instead of girls.

"He's not my boyfriend." Jason mumbled, looking down at his tray. Suddenly, his cheeseburger and fries didn't seem so good anymore. He felt nauseous, like if he ate anything, he'd throw up and pass out cold.

Leo noticed the way his best friend's face was turning paler and paler every passing second. He was worried that Jason would turn into a vampire, or worse, have a brain heart attack from lack of blood flow. So he cleared his throat, causing both the blond and Piper to look at him.

"Hey, bro, if you want to talk about it we're listening, okay?" Leo told Jason and Piper nodded.

"Yeah," she said, taking Jason's hand into her own and squeezing it. "If you want to get anything off your chest, we're here."

"Unless it's chest hair," commented the Latino.

Piper shot him a glare. "Shut up, Leo."

Jason sighed, pushing his tray of food in front of him, and suddenly all of the words were tumbling out of his mouth like word vomit. "Okay, so there's this guy, his name is Percy Jackson and he's really cute and he's got sex hair and green eyes the same color as the sea, but I don't know if he's gay or not. I mean, he said he had an ex but he never mentioned if it was a girl or a boy. I just – I don't want to push myself onto him and then have him reject me because he's not into guys. And he's giving me all of these mixed signals that makes me so freaking confused and to top it all off, we only met like last week so it'd kind of be like rushing into things?" Jason looked between his two friends, waiting for a response from either of them.

"Well, it seems like you really like this Percy Jackson kid, so I say go for it," Leo said simply, shrugging. "He can't be that cute anyways. I've never heard of him."

Jason rolled his eyes and turned to Piper. "What about you, Pipes? You're really good at this love and romance stuff."

Piper took a deep breath and folded her hands over the table, about to spill some Dr. Phil shit that was supposed to make Jason feel better. "I think you should wait it out," she she stated matter-of-factly and Jason groaned.

"You're supposed to make me feel better!" he whined, letting his head fall heavily against the table in front of him. He was not aware of the looks he was getting from the people sitting at the tables around them.

"You said yourself it'd be rushing into things! Plus, you should get to know him better. He might have some annoying habit you don't know about that's one of your pet peeves. After all, good things come to those who wait."

"And there's the Dr. Phil shit."

"What?" Piper asked.

"Nothing."

"Hey, guys, Thalia is coming over and she's got some guy behind her." Leo warned, pointing over Jason's shoulder. "I think he's a swimmer or something. I've seen him before."

Of course, Jason's curiosity got the better of him and he dared to look over his shoulder to see who this swimmer guy was. He panicked a little as his eyes met Percy’s and the pair approached the table, Thalia sitting next to Leo and the boy plopping down next to Jason, who was rendered speechless. He decided to pay more attention to his food rather than look at the green-eyed boy – and ooh, was that extra pickles on his cheeseburger?

Thalia grinned and pointed at the dark-haired boy. "Guys, this is Percy Jackson, the university's swim captain. Percy, this is Leo, Piper and -"

"Jason," Percy finished for her, sending the blond a knowing smirk. "Yeah, I met him earlier."

"How do you know Jason?" Thalia questioned, her hand coming to rest on her hip. Her over protective sister side was now coming out. "Are you stalking him or something?" Jason let out a silent groan, burying his tomato red face in Piper's shoulder.

Percy shrugged, a care-free grin breaking out on his face as he ran his hand through his hair, trying to tame it. "No, we have Latin together."

Before Thalia could continue questioning Percy's motives, Piper's jaw dropped, realization dawning on her. "Wait, you're Percy Jackson?"

Said boy nodded, glancing nervously at the way the tan-skinned brunette’s widened accusingly at him. "Yeah. Should I be worried or flattered that you know of me?" He asked, his tone a little skeptical.

Leo stared at him, and then broke out into a grin that made him look like the Chesire cat. "Wow, Jason, Percy is actually cute."

"You talked to them about me?" asked Percy, glancing curiously at the blond, smiling.

Jason blushed and tried to form coherent words. "Uh, yeah."

And Percy kept staring at Jason, even after the conversation had shifted to something else. He didn't know why, though. Maybe it was the way whenever someone said something funny, the blond would smile, stretching the scar above his lip in a cute way. Percy didn't know why he thought of Jason as cute because he was pretty sure he was straight – he’d dated several girls before and didn't have to fake anything. Plus, he was still kind of in love with his ex-girlfriend, Annabeth, which was maybe why he found Jason attractive.

Percy totally had a thing for blondes.

"Hey, water boy, don't you have practice in, like, ten minutes?" Thalia asked him, pointing at a clock on a wall in the cafeteria.

Percy groaned. "Shit."

He was really out of his game after summer break. He was used to waking up whenever he wanted and not being on schedule. All Percy wanted to do was sleep and play Call of Duty for the rest of his life, but for some reason someone decided you can't make a living playing video games.

"Language," Jason muttered under his breath, causing Percy to send him an amused look.

Percy turned to the rest of the table, slowly getting up from his seat as he grinned, saying, "I apparently have practice in five minutes, so I, unfortunately, have to cut this meeting short. Don't miss me too much." And then he left, leaving the other four staring after him.

"His level of confidence is astounding." said Leo.

"Congratulations," Thalia snapped, "you actually sounded smart."

Leo gave her an offended look. "I am smart."

"Whatever." She rolled her blue eyes that were identical to Jason's, her hands tugging at the black choker necklace around her neck. "Jason, I'm going to head out. Luke wants to show me something."

Then she got up and left in her usual moodiness, turning heads as she strolled through the café. 

Most people thought she was an A-class bitch when they first met her, but she just had a sarcastic personality and didn't warm up very well to strangers, and her dark appearance also made it hard to approach her. Some people found her all black attire intimidating, especially her ‘death to Barbie’ that had a bloody arrow going through the blonde’s head. 

All of this had Jason wondering how Thalia knew Percy. It wasn't really a surprise, though – their personalities were strikingly similar and if they hadn't become friends, Jason knew that they would've probably hated each other's guts.

"And then were three," Piper muttered under her breath.


	3. set a fire in my head

All throughout swim practice, Percy was distracted by thoughts of blue eyes and blond hair. He didn't know why he couldn't get his mind off of Jason. It frustrated him to no end because he really wasn't looking for a relationship. Really.

Percy submerged himself underwater, hoping to cleanse his thoughts as he raced against the boy next him. The boy was fast, though not as fast as him. Percy Jackson had the record time in all of New York for the year - 43.72 seconds for the 100-yard breast stroke. Not that he was bragging or anything. (He was, by the way.)

Reaching forward, Percy's fingers brushed against the rough concrete wall of the pool and he heard the click of stopwatch from above the water. He broke the surface of the waves as he looked up at his coach expectantly, waiting to hear his results. Coach Hedge had a frown on his face and Percy was fully prepared to get yelled at.

Coach Hedge was a middle aged man with a permanent scowl on his face, always wearing a baseball cap and carrying a bat. Sometimes Percy wondered if he got the memo that he was the varsity swim coach, not the varsity baseball coach. It was probably why he hated his job so much. Honestly, Hedge had only gotten the gig as a last resort. At the end of Percy's sophomore year, the previous coach had gotten an invitation to prepare Michael Phelps - yes, the Michael Phelps - for the 2016 Olympics and abandoned the school and its sixteen year winning streak, leaving Coach Hedge in charge of the swim team.

The only problem?

Coach Hedge was a horrible swim coach.

"Where is your head at, cupcake?" Coach Hedge yelled, making Percy flinch a little. "This is the slowest time you've had all season, Jackson. Get your head out of your ass and get those arms pumping. Let's go!" He blew the whistle hanging around his neck so hard his face turned a bright shade of pink.

The whole swim team groaned, knowing that whenever Coach was mad at Percy, they all suffered. The green-eyed boy just clenched his jaw and prepared for fifty more laps. He was pretty sure Hedge wasn't even qualified to be a swim coach and that majorly sucked because with him as their best swimmer, they could easily make first place at state championships. The team just wasn't working on their weaknesses, which left room for other colleges and universities to beat them.

As they finished up their laps, Percy called them over to gather in a circle around him. He gave them a look that meant business and got ready to give a speech worthy of Martin Luther King Jr. about effort, perseverance, and whatnot. But all that was thrown out the window as he saw the dejected look on their faces.

"Okay, guys, so I know we're not exactly in the best shape right now with Hedge as our coach," Percy told them, giving everyone a stern look, "but his coaching only goes so far. You have to wants this, because if you don't, you'll never get anywhere. We have to act like every practice is championships." Percy sighed and ran a hand through his wet hair. "As your captain, it's my responsibility to make sure you guys are prepared to win, so just... do your bests, okay?"

There were a chorus of yes’s and Percy smiled. "Practice is over. Go home!" And then there was a stampede of soaking wet boys rushing to have first dibs on the hot water in the shower.

Percy lagged behind, looking down at the water in the pool below. He could see his reflection in it – black hair, sea green eyes – a spitting image of his father, one of Olympia University's best swimmers in history. He was a part of the Big Three – the nickname the three MVP's in swim, football, and soccer had earned when each team won championships during the same year. Sometimes it felt like a curse with having to have a reputation as good as his dad's, knowing that he could never live up to it. Even being captain wasn't good enough for his father, and Percy was too old now to have a temper tantrum and refuse to continue living up to the Jackson name.

"Good speech out there, cupcake," Coach Hedge said. Percy looked over and shot him a look, but softened after a second. “You know, I may yell at you a lot, but I can tell you’re a good kid, Jackson.”

"Thanks, Coach." He replied, saying an awkward goodbye before he said something he regretted to the Coach. Percy really did not feel like getting hit on the head with a wooden baseball bat so he high-tailed his ass to the boys’ locker room.

"Hey, Perce!" Someone called as Percy entered the room. He looked over his shoulder and saw two identical looking boys with curly brown hair walking towards him, wearing the same matching mischievous grins. Percy recognized as Travis and Connor Stoll, who were on the track team. His stomach turned. Whenever they were around, it was never a good thing.

Percy hung his white towel over his shoulders, nodding at them. "What's up?"

The taller one - Travis - slung his arms around Percy's shoulders, "You, my man, are cordially invited to our party tonight!"

"Drinks will be provided, of course," added Connor. "It's gonna be the party of the year!"

Percy bit his lip, knowing that he'd never hear the end of it from his best friends, Grover and Rachel – “You need to be more responsible, Percy! It's a school night!” – but then the little devil version of him on his shoulder whispered into his ear, "Go. You haven't partied for a while and Jason might be there."

"Sure," Percy said slowly, "but it's a school night, so I'll have to lay off a bit on the drinks."

"Since when have school nights ever stopped you?" Travis smirked, leaning in close so close to Percy’s face he could see the freckles dusting across his pink cheeks. "I heard last year that you got so drunk, you gave everyone at the party a strip tease."

The green-eyed boy's face turned the darkest shade of red, remembering him standing on a dining room table with his clothes laying on the floor and people staring curiously. "Oh my God, I thought everyone forgot about that! That was the most embarrassing moment of my life."

"I might've done a throwback Thursday on Instagram of that one pic of you with your hand on your c—" Percy quickly slapped a hand over Connor's mouth when he saw Jason enter the locker room in nothing but those tight football pants, the ones that made any guy seem like they had an ass. Jason, however, had an ass with or without the pants, but Percy didn't dare say that to anyone. Ever.

The blond's eyes quickly found Percy's and he waved, making the green-eyed boy's heart beat ten times faster. Before he could muster even a quick 'hey', Jason was already gone around a corner to where his locker was hidden from view.

"Dude!" Connor whined, glaring at him. "What was that for?"

"You, uh, had a mosquito on your lip," Percy lied, "but it's gone now! Alright, bye." He attempted to make a swift exit, but Travis easily grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back. Hey, he was on the swim team, not the track team.

"If you're wondering if Jason's going to be at the party, he is," Travis informed him.

Connor nodded, "Perks of being in sports, the parties and girls."

Percy scoffed. "I don't care if he's at the party or not. Just make sure you have some vodka," he said before walking off.

"What about it being a school night?" Connor called after him.

Percy simply flipped them off over his shoulder.


	4. messing up, it's only right

By the time Jason had arrived at the party with Thalia in tow, it was already in full-swing. Red solo cups littered the floors of the Stoll's house - which Jason was pretty sure they'd broken into since a foreclosed sign was stuck in the grass on the lawn and there was a broken window on the side of the house. When he first walked into the house, he was hit with the sound of music so loud that he could barely think.

"Do you want a -" He turned to Thalia, but she was already gone, probably going off to find where the drinks were being kept, always a step ahead as usual.

That left Jason leaning against the wall, searching the crowd of sweaty bodies grinding against each other for a familiar face. Or maybe just a cute one...

From across the room, Percy had a close eye on the blond boy leaning against the wall, a cup of vodka in his hand. He watched as a brunette girl walked over to Jason, handed him a drink, and then started to flirt with him. The blond didn't seem to notice the girl's interior motives - he was smiling the entire time - but Percy definitely did because c'mon, it was obvious. She had a hand pressed firmly against Jason's bicep and flipped her hair over her shoulder with her other hand, throwing her head back in laughter.

Percy didn't understand why Jason wasn't flirting back. The girl was pretty well endowed - her boobs were at least a C cup and she had a nice ass. A total hottie.

Something stirred in the pit of Percy's stomach, and he glared and clenched his jaw in - what? Jealousy? Pssh, Percy Jackson wasn't jealous of anyone, not even the girl who was flirting with Jason and his godly cheek bones. And he was definitely not jealous of the crushed cup in his hand.

Of course, Jason chose that exact moment to look across the room at Percy, his eyebrows raising up in a way that said 'please save me before I kill myself.' Percy knew that look very well from when he'd come to parties back in the day with Rachel while he was still dating Annabeth, sending that look to his red-headed best friend whenever he'd attracted the unwanted attention of a girl that wasn't the blonde he had been dating.

So being the great friend he was, Percy sauntered over to Jason and wrapped his hand around the blond's wrist and pulled him away to the couch, effectively ending the conversation he was having with the girl.

"Thanks," Jason said, sending Percy a greatful look.

"What are friends for?" He responded, his body relaxing into the couch that seemed like it was made from clouds. Really, it was ridiculously soft and Percy just wanted to close his eyes and bounce up and down.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, clearly concerned about the mental well-being of his friend.

The green-eyed boy hummed and wrapped his arms around Jason, resting his head on the blond's shoulder. He'd had way too many drinks by then to remember what personal space was and that he was totally invading Jason's. Black hair falling into his eyes, Percy slurred out, "Why weren't you flirting with that girl back there? Is it because Piper's your girlfriend?"

Jason almost spit out the beer he was drinking, causing him to choke. Spluttering, he raised an eyebrow at Percy. All he could manage was a tiny, "Oh my god."

"What?" The green-eyed boy said, turning his head so that his breath sent chills down Jason's spine. The blond drew in a sharp breath, his stomach feeling insanely light. "So you're not dating, then?"

"No, we're just best friends."

"Good," Percy murmured, "now you're all mine."

Too cliche, but Percy was drunk to give a rat's ass about how much he sounded like he belonged in a sappy Hallmark channel movie.

He pressed his lips softly against the skin on the blond's neck, traveling upwards. He kissed along Jason's heavenly jawline as the younger boy let out a breathy moan, instantly wanting more, but he knew Percy was drunk. Jason didn't want their first kiss to be because of clouded judgement and a cup of vodka. Call him a romantic, but he wanted their kiss to be meaningful, so he followed his brain instead of his heart. Or something else that was in his nether regions.

"Percy, you're drunk." Jason shoved the green-eyed boy off of him.

A hurt look crossed Percy's face as he pulled away, "You don't want me, Annabeth?"

Jason frowned, confused. He had no idea who Annabeth was or why Percy was calling him a girl's name. Last time Jason had checked, he definitely had balls.

"Who's Annabeth?" He asked lowly and he was surprised the green-eyed boy could even hear him.

"You're Annabeth, my ex-girlfriend," Percy replied, blinking slowly.

And then Jason may or may not have hyperventilated. His breaths grew shorter and shallower as the room started to sway. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have drank whatever was in that cup that the brunette had given him because he was pretty sure he shouldn't feel like he was on a tilt-a-whirl. So what if the guy he liked thought he was his ex-girlfriend while he was drunk? The world wasn't going to end.

Okay, he hadn't checked the world news before he left his dorm, but that could always be done later. Jason had more important matters at hand, like making sure Percy Jackson didn't try to stick his hands down his pants and figure out for himself that no, he indeed was not a girl.

"I-I think we should go," Jason said, gathering the green-eyed boy into his arms as he stood up. "You're way too drunk to stay here or drive, so I'm taking you back to campus. We'll pick up your car in the morning." If it's still here, he mentally added, remembering that the house might be a crime scene once the Stolls and the rest of the jocks were through with it.

As they wandered through the house, trying to find Thalia, Jason had to intertwine his fingers with Percy's in order to keep the boy by his side. Unfortunately for the blond, Percy was a touchy drunk.

Finally the blond caught sight of his raven-haired sister, who was chatting with some of her friends, which included Jason's teammate - the infamous star quarterback of Olympus University, Luke Castellan. Jason had no problem dragging Thalia away from him.

"Hey, Thals, I'm taking Percy back to school. He's completely -"

"Shit-faced? Yeah, I noticed." Thalia sipped from her red solo cup and raised an eyebrow as she watched her brother suffer at the hands of a drunk Percy. She seemed amused by the whole situation, laughing as the older boy groped Jason's ass. "Don't enjoy him too much, though!"

He groaned, "Trust me, I won't."

"Jason, we all know that you enjoy sucking dicks, don't be ashamed! Take advantage of the situation." From the way Thalia's eyes were bloodshot, Jason declared her drunk as well. Was he the only one halfway sober? Or not, he thought as he clung onto Percy as the room swayed again.

"So are you catching a ride with Luke or what?" He questioned her once his vertigo had passed.

"Yeah, I guess," she shrugged, "just take Jackson home and try to make it to football practice tomorrow in one piece."

It took a few moments to register what Thalia was talking about but when he did, Jason wasn't sure if he was embarrassed that his sister might have caught on to his crush or angry that she thought he would bottom. Because Jason was so not one to bottom.

"Whatever." He mumbled after watching his sister's retreating form. Jason settled his gaze on Percy, "Okay, we're leaving now."

"But I wanna staaaaaaay," Percy whined in his ear, sounding very much like a five-year-old having a temper tantrum. "I didn't even get to dance!"

Jason's eyes widened. "Do you remember the last time you danced while you were drunk? You did a strip tease."

Suddenly, Percy had him pressed up against the wall, holding Jason's hands firmly above his head. He brought his face dangerously close to the blond's, so close Jason could clearly see the way his eyelashes fanned out against his cheeks in the most angelic way. And of course, Jason's little friend chose that moment to make an unwelcomed appearance.

Ugh.

Percy kissed the shell of Jason's ear and asked, "Do you want me to give you a strip tease?"

Was this a trick question? Jason had to be getting punked. He looked around for Ashton Kutcher, expecting for him to come out and yell, "Gotcha!"

"No," Jason responded, not wanting to let Percy have the upper hand. "Now let's go." He pushed the boy off of him and dragged Percy to his car - an all black Mercedes with gold detailing because his father refused to drive around in anything that wasn't ridiculously flamboyant.

On the drive back to campus, Jason had to listen to Percy spew irrelevant thoughts and sing horribly off-key to every song that played on the radio as he drove. He eventually just ended up shutting off the radio, feeling very much like he was babysitting the older boy, but it was okay because Percy made anything look adorably cute, even with his face smashed against the window and drooling. Jason just wanted to cuddle him but that thought was discarded as the twinkling lights of Olympus came into view.

"Percy." Jason called, giving said boy a gentle shake.

The green-eyed boy raised an eyebrow and softly hummed.


	5. run away so easily

Sunlight streamed through the blue curtains covering the window, directly hitting Percy's face. Groaning and cursing the Stolls for inviting him to that stupid party, he opened his eyes to be met with Jason's face so close to his, he could see the freckles dotting the bridge of the blond's nose like constellations.

Wait, why was he comparing Jason's freckles to stars? Or better yet, why was the blond laying in his bed?

Percy thought back to last night's party. He remembered pretty drinking all of the vodka the Stoll brothers had available. He remembered seeing Jason with a hot brunette and then stealing him away from her to lead him to the couch. What he did not remember was everything that happened after that. His eyes widened and oh my God, did they – 

Percy lifted up the blanket covering them and let out a sigh of relief. They were still fully clothed, but there was still a nagging voice in his head saying, "Did you wish you guys had?" And at first Percy thought no, and then he kept thinking about it and he wasn't so sure then.

Laying back against the bed, Percy turned his head to face Jason. He observed the blond is his sleep, noticing that he looked more peaceful in his sleep, his full pink lips parted and inviting Percy to kiss them. He found himself tilting his head forward as if he was in a trance, his lips brushing against the blond's in a chaste kiss.

Of course, Percy knew what he was doing was wrong, but he was known for making stupid decisions. Like that one time he'd decided to go out and get a nose piercing and then totally regretted it once the guy had finished the job (he stopped wearing the piercing a month later and the hole closed, which defeated the point of getting a piercing in the first place.) Or the time he'd went skinny-dipping in the courtyard's fountain after being dared to and then was caught by a dean. Or the time – well, you get the point.

Percy was stupid.

So he wasn't all too surprised when the blond's eyes flew open just as he was pulling away.

Jason stared wide-eyed and in shock at Percy, while the green-eyed boy kept his eyes on the ceiling, mentally willing it to collapse on him so that he wouldn't have to admit to what he'd been doing because no, he was too prideful to stoop that low. Percy Jackson never admitted anything, even if he was wrong and out of place. Which he was.

The blonde opened and closed his mouth several times before he asked in a calm voice, "What were you doing, Jackson?" Though, they both knew the answer.

"I thought I saw something on your lips…" Percy trailed off, peering at Jason out of the corner of his eye to see if he was buying into his lame ass excuse. He wasn't.

"So you kissed me?"

"Uh, yeah?"

Jason gave him a look that had him one word away from admitting to everything. He glanced at the door, calculating how long it'd take for him to reach it and bolt out of the room like... well, Usain Bolt.

"Percy – "

And with a punch to Jason's balls, Percy had launched himself across the bed and was darting towards the door in such a way that he doubted his choice in choosing swimming as his sport. (He could run pretty fast in desperate situations.) Percy shoved several guys out of his way, clutching his head as they yelled obscene words at him because he had a huge hangover, which he was now hyperaware of, and rushed into the bathroom. He dove into a stall and locked it.

"Shit," he cursed once he realized he was probably the dumbest person in the world right now.

Why, you ask?

Because:

A) He was now hiding in the girls' bathroom. (How else would you explain the heels he could see peeking out from under the door?)

B) His first class was starting in approximately, eh, two minutes and in said class, he sat next to a blond named Jason Grace. (His luck had been running low the last couple of days.)

And C) He was still wearing his clothes from the previous night, which meant he'd have to go back in his dorm room to change and face Jason and that was so not an option.

Oh, and did he mention that he was seriously questioning his sexuality right now?

So he did the only logical thing he could do at the moment - he pulled out his phone and dialed Rachel Elizabeth Dare and willed her to answer the damn phone before he horribly screwed up his life some more.

"Percy?" A girl's voice echoed in his ear and he'd never been so glad to hear her voice in his life.

"Rach, I screwed up," he stated.

Percy could imagine her throw her head back in laughter, flaming curls flying everywhere as she snorted. "That's generally what you do on a daily basis."

"No, like I really screwed up," he replied, glancing down at his feet that were only covered in socks. Great. He ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, messing it up more in the process.

"What happened, Jackson? And don't lie to me because you're a horrible liar."

And then Percy explained the whole Jason situation, telling her about meeting the blond boy, the party, and then waking up next to him and doing, well, something inappropriate and ending up in the girl's bathroom. He really hoped no one was listening outside his stall because what he was saying would make great school gossip.

"Stop laughing at me," Percy whined, his face turning red from embarrassment even though she couldn't see him. "It's not even funny."

"You're right, it's not funny. It's freaking hilarious," Rachel giggled. "Alright, I'm on my way over."

And then Percy was confined to the stall for about ten minutes while he waited for his red-headed friend to arrive, leaving him alone with his wandering thoughts. He was desperately trying not to think about Jason – why was it always blondes? – and resorted to playing Flappy Bird to pass the time. What? He had an extreme case of ADHD, did you expect him to just stand there awkwardly?

Yeah, that's what he thought.

"Percy?"

He opened the door and had never been so glad to see Rachel in his life. He instantly wrapped his arms around her in a hug, smelling her strawberry shampoo.

She pulled away, pushing back the floral headband that kept her curls out of her face and smirked at Percy knowingly. "Since you're avoiding your room because of – "

"Don't say it!" He held his hands up.

"—him, you can chill out in mine until your class is over." Rachel grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him out of the bathroom, earning a couple of curious stares. Several guys gave Percy a thumbs up and he would've smirked back, but he was too preoccupied with trying to keep up with the red head.

She continued talking, crossing the courtyard to the girls' dorm, "I've got some of your clothes left from the last time you spent the night and why do smell like vodka?"

Percy almost lied, but obviously not telling the truth wasn't working out for him today, so after mentally preparing himself to get reprimanded, he said, "I went to a party."

"Really?" Rachel sent him a look as she stopped in front of her dorm room. "You know you're not supposed to be drinking, Percy. Remember that promise that we made about your stepfather –"

"I'm not going to turn out like Gabe," he growled, glaring at the red-headed girl who had the same fierce look on her face.

Then, Percy's features softened as he fell back against the wall, sliding down to rest against the floor. He rested his head in his hands and felt his body begin to shake as the tears started falling from his eyes. He sniffled, wiping his nose against the sleeve of his hoodie.

"I'm just so confused, Rach," he confessed to her. "It's like – like everything is falling apart, you know? Annabeth breaks up with me, the swim team is absolute shit and I'm the one pulling most of the weight, and then I kiss a freakin' guy. I'm not even gay!"

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest, looking down on him - both literally and figuratively. Honestly, she did feel bad for Percy. She could tell he was conflicted from the way he kept running his hands through his hair in agitation and his continuous ranting.

So being the bestest best friend in the world that she was, Rachel kneeled next to Percy and put on her most genuine smile, which now that she probably thought about it, it must've seemed really fake.

"How about we watch Finding Nemo and I'll bake some cookies and then we can have a one-on-one about all of your problems?" She offered.

Percy perked up at that, eyebrows raised curiously. "Blue chocolate chip cookies?"

Rachel scoffed, "What else did you expect, Jackson?"

He grinned mischievously. Did he ever mention that Rachel was pretty much the best friend in the world?


	6. crowd my thoughts with love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! x

Jason sat in his Latin class, eyes trained on the classroom door, waiting for the boy that occupied the empty chair next to him to barge in with his lop-sided grin and stupidly green eyes. Glancing at the clock, he noticed that there was only five minutes left in class – a sure sign that Percy wasn't coming.

Jason wondered – no, he knew that it had to do with the kiss they shared that happened earlier that morning. Right after it happened, Percy ran out of the room, looking as if kissing Jason was the worst thing that he could've done in his life. He knew that Percy regretted it the second after it happened and Jason wasn't sure if it was him or not.

Sure, maybe his shocked reaction could've scared Percy off, but how else was he supposed to react? He woke up being kissed on the lips by the guy he was pretty sure was gay! (Or bisexual? Jason wasn't even sure anymore.)

Anyways, Percy probably didn't even think when he kissed him, since he was in the stage between being seriously drunk and having a killer hangover. Jason remembered reading somewhere that the lines were blurred when people were intoxicated and they often didn't recognize the difference between right and wrong. And that was the problem Jason was having – he didn't know if what Percy did was right or wrong.

Yeah, Jason had had an attraction to the green-eyed boy the moment he'd saw him, but there was so many things that were wrong in the situation. One, Percy was still in love with his ex-girlfriend, Annabeth; two, their fathers had that whole rivalry thing going on; and three, Jason wasn't ready for a new relationship, or any relationship.

He had his education and football to focus on at the moment. Scouts from professional football teams were watching him now that he was a sophomore and even though he was great at football, he still wanted a career to fall back on just in case something happened. And with having to juggle his schooling, sports, and a boyfriend, that would definitely be too much on his plate. Plus, Percy was captain of the swim team - surely he had better things to do then date a blond-haired blue-eyed football player.

"Jason," a voice called, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Jason shook his head and raised his eyebrows. "Hmm?" He asked, looking at Mr. Brunner, who sat at the front of the classroom with a smirk on his face.

"You must be in deep thought about something, Mr. Grace," he commented, waggling his finger at the blonde.

"Why would you say that?"

"You haven't taken any notes during the duration of this class and you failed to notice that you're the only one in the room," Mr. Brunner chuckled softly, pointing at the clock that hung above the doorway. "Class is already over."

Jason felt himself blushing as he looked around the room, finally noticing that all of the desks around him were empty, the only evidence that they'd ever been occupied in the first place being the stray pieces of paper left on the desk tops. He looked back at his Latin teacher, suddenly feeling foolish for not realizing that the class had ended about ten minutes ago.

"I'm sorry," Jason apologized, the words falling from his lips before he could think about it. "I didn't realize that it was so late."

Mr. Brunner held his hand up, silencing the blonde. "Don't apologize, parva leves capiunt animas."

Jason frowned, mentally trying to translate the words to English in his mind. And then he smiled a bit when it clicked and said, "Small things occupy light minds."

"I've taught you well, my boy!" The older man laughed, pushing his wheelchair towards his desk and grabbing his briefcase. He set it down in his lap, "As much I'd love to chit-chat with you, Mr. Grace, I've got to be heading out. I expect to see you in class tomorrow?"

Jason gathered his belongings together and rushed to help his teacher with the door, holding it open like a true gentleman. "Of course, I can't risk missing any of classes."

Mr. Brunner rolled past him, saying, "Oh how I wished you would rub off on Percy. Speaking of him, do you mind informing him that my class is equally as important as his swimming? I'm afraid that his priorities are elsewhere."

Jason found himself slightly tensing up at the mention of the green-eyed boy and Mr. Brunner was quick to notice, but said nothing, instead settling for sending the young blond an expectant look. Jason ran a hand through his hair, softly cursing under his breath. He didn't want to have to face Percy any time soon, but once he made a promise, he never broke that promise, and that was his teacher wanted him to do - promise to talk to Percy about missing his class.

"I, uh, suppose I can talk to Percy," Jason stuttered out.

"Good, because here he comes."

He looked up to see a certain black-haired teen strolling towards him, hands deep in his pockets and a dejected look on his face as his eyes met his. Jason momentarily panicked, turning to face his teacher and prepared to say no, he can't talk to Percy, but Mr. Brunner was already gone.

"Hey."

He looked up into green eyes as deep as the ocean and responded with a lame, "Hi."

Percy's hand went up to tug at the blue beanie that was covering his hair, a few strands peaking out underneath as if they were trying to escape. Jason could tell that he was uncomfortable and he didn't blame him. Honestly, he felt like running, too.

"Look," Percy started, biting his lip, "can we just ignore what happened earlier? I mean, I know that it was totally out of hand and you're probably disgusted in me and - "

"I'm not disgusted in you," Jason quickly said, shaking his head a little harder than necessary. "If you feel that way, it's fine. I'm not going to judge you or anything."

"That's the thing! I don't feel that way."

Ouch.

Jason felt like he was being stabbed straight in the heart. He might've said that he didn't want a relationship, but he still wanted Percy to like him as much as he liked him.

He tried not to appear too hurt by Percy's words, nodding and muttering, "Yeah, I get what you're saying..."

"We can still be friends, though, right?" Percy asked hopefully, taking a step towards the blonde. A smile was now on his face, green eyes sparkling and Jason just couldn't say no to that face.

"Yeah, friends," he agreed.

And then he was enveloped in a big hug, the scent of coconut and the beach overwhelming him as he rested his chin on Percy's shoulder. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the feeling of the green-eyed boy's arms wrapped around him comfortingly, but the embrace was over too quickly, with Percy pulling away.

Absolutely friend-zoned, Jason thought as he watched Percy leave without even a look over his shoulder.

 

* * *

 

 Somewhere along the line they'd exchanged phone numbers. Their text conversations were a mix of twenty questions and random comments. They'd gotten to know the basics facts about each other -  favorite color, favorite food, etc. - and sometimes when Percy couldn't sleep and it felt as if the room was closing in on him, he'd call Jason at three in the morning. The blond always answered, never complaining about having his sleep interrupted.

Most of those calls went something like this:

"Hi."

"H-Hey."

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

And then Jason would talk about his day until Percy could no longer remember what it felt like to not be able to breathe. Blushing cheeks, soft smiles in the dark, and the sound of Jason's breathing always calmed his shaking hands. He figured maybe it was knowing that someone was there for him in a way that no one else really was.

One day in Greek literature class Piper had noticed a change in Jason's demeanor. Her eyes changed to a dark blue as she took in his disheveled blond hair, sweatpants, and the bags under his eyes. He caught her staring at him and suppressing a yawn, asked, "What?"

"You must really like him a lot," She said with a hint of a smile.

Jason clutched his pencil, wishing he didn't know where this conversation was heading. "What do you mean?"

She leaned forward in her seat and the gleam in her eyes made Jason's heart flutter a little. "Don't play dumb, Jason. I know you stay up all night talking to him. You like him."

He swallowed. "Yeah, but he thinks we're just friends and I don't want to ruin our friendship."

"What's the harm in dropping a few hints?" Piper asked. "A little bit of flirting and see how he responds. If he gives you the wrong vibe, then stop."

He gave her a skeptical look. "I don't think –”

"Oh!" Piper squealed – literally squealed. Jason's swore he could feel the stares of everyone in the lecture hall looking at the two of them. "What about that dinner your dad's having? You can take him as your date!"

Jason didn't even hesitate to say no. His dad would flip shit.

"It's perfect, Jason. Your dad wants you there for support with a date and I know you want to go deep down inside. You'll meet the best doctors in the country, which could improve your chances in getting a job in the medical career. And you and Percy can go as friends, if that's what you decide."

"I'm not really sure, Pipes," Jason said. Before he can continue, the professor sends them a dirty look that makes them sink into their seats.

A couple seconds later, a folded paper lands on Jason's desk. He sent Piper a glare before unfolding the note. Scribbled in her perfect cursive, it says, "Sleep on it, okay?"


	7. i'd live for you

"Hey, Jace?"

Jason had been trying to finish his Calculus homework when he was interrupted from finding the derivative of inverse cosine, looking up to see Percy laying on his bed, long legs spread across the white sheets. His hands kept playing with the zipper on his black hoodie, an obvious sign of his inability to stay still. Percy brought his lip between his teeth in a way that made it difficult for Jason to keep his eyes trained on somewhere other than the green-eyed boy's mouth. Just friends, Jason repeated in his head, trying to stay focused on whatever Percy was about to say.

“What’s up?” Jason asked, setting his glasses down on the desk.

"Are you busy Friday night?" Percy asked, turning on his side to look at Jason inquisitively. His hair fell across his forehead and he quickly reached up to brush it out of his eyes. A wayward strand managed to escape his grasp, falling to frame his face. Jason resisted the urge to get up and brush the stray hair behind his ear and – nope, Jason told himself. "There's this movie I really wanna to see - it has like five stars - and I asked pretty much everyone to come, but they're all busy and all the other showings are sold out so like, do you want to go with me? And I don't mean it as in a date cause I don't want it to be awkward between us, y'know?"

"Because we're just friends?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow. The smirk he was wearing made Percy quickly dart his eyes back up to the ceiling he'd been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. He'd finally gotten the courage of asking Jason out on a not-so-really date and this was how he reacted? Okay, now he was really questioning his masculinity because he sounded like a tween. You know what? Two could play that game.

"Yeah, totally," Percy answered almost too quickly. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Uh, just asking." Jason shrugged, tapping his pencil on the desk. "Just don’t want it to be awkward between us. You know, like the time you almost gave me a very personal strip tease."

Percy paled, freezing in place. "You still remember that?"

"I might've had a drink or two, but I wasn't completely drunk like you." Jason laughed and it was the best sound Percy has heard in a long while. “I don’t think I could ever forget that. It definitely ranked top ten of Most Embarrasing Moments in My Life.”

“Shut up,” Percy said, reaching across the bed to chuck a pillow at Jason’s head. The blond managed to catch it as he continued to talk, “You enjoyed it and you know it, Blondie.”

Jason was ready to fire back but then his phone rang. He fumbled through the pockets to retrieve it while Percy smirked smugly, knowing he had the last word. Percy didn't miss the beat when Jason's face darkened before it was replaced by a blank face. He frowned, green eyes straining to see the person's name on the phone. Maybe it was his ex or something? Jason would’ve mentioned having an ex, right? Or maybe it was one of those bad breakups and he wanted to completely forget about it? 

"Are you not going to answer that?"

"It's not important," Jason snapped back, taking Percy by surprise. His face softened once he saw the hurt look that fell upon the green-eyed boy's face. "It's just my dad."

"You sound upset."

Probably the understatement of the year judging from the way Jason ran his hand over his face, letting out a sigh. He didn't like to talk about his dad and he especially did not want to talk to Percy about him. He sort of had what some would call Daddy Issues.

"Yeah, well, he only calls when he needs Thalia and I to go with him to business dinners. He's really good as making it seem like he's got his life together - perfect job, perfect marriage, perfect kids - but no one really knows he had an affair with my mom."

Percy tried not to seem surprised. Zeus Grace was known worldwide for being the world's top businessman. Besides his athletic feats at Olympus, he'd become New York City's top realtor and grew to own several companies, including Alpha Airlines. Basically, he was the depiction of the American dream.

The phone rang again and Jason literally growled as his answered the call with a harsh, "What do you want?" He got up and left the room, leaving Percy alone with his thoughts. He wondered what his dad could possibly want that would make Jason react in such a way. Jason was the rational one out of the two – he rarely ever got angry and seeing him like this made Percy worry a bit.

Jason returned, all silent and jittery as if he was nervous or something. It made Percy uneasy and he couldn't resist asking what had transpired when the blond left the room. He opened his mouth to say something, but Jason beat him to it.

"My dad wants me to go to one of his dinners." Jason said, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

Percy lifted his eyebrows. "And are you going to go?"

Jason shrugged half-heartedly. "I have to. He's building a hospital in his name and celebrating the grand opening with some of the best doctors in the world. This is my chance to get a breakthrough in the medical field."

Percy sensed something was wrong in this situation. Normally, someone would be excited at a chance to kick start their future career. Jason, however, looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Something was up.

"So what exactly is the problem here?" Percy asked. “You should be excited, but instead, you look like you’d rather take a trip to Antarctica.”

Jason’s eyes drifted towards his hands. "He, uh, said I needed a date."

"That's no problem! You can go with Piper. You two already act like a couple anyways." Percy joked. Jason didn’t laugh.

"The problem is I told him you were my date."

Uh. What?

"Wait, what?" Percy tried to hide the shock on his face, but he failed. He was absolutely fucking screwed.

"I only said it to piss him off," Jason said quickly. He was desperately trying to cover his tracks. Guilt seemed to be rolling off of him in waves and Percy could sense that he really didn’t mean to throw him under the bus like that. "You know our dads don't get along. The words kind of just tumbled out of my mouth and -- " 

"Jace, it's okay."

Jason's eyes widened, looking at Percy as if he’d grown a second head. "It's ... okay? Are you sure? I could just cancel..."

"No, it's okay," Percy shrugged. "I could use a little revenge on my dad as well."

Jason raised his eyebrow at the green-eyed boy. "Really?"

"What? You're not the only one with daddy issues." He said indifferently. "My dad barely pays attention to me. He has this bar that's set so fucking high and he expects me to live up to it. And it sucks having to be this perfect son, you know? Sometimes I wish I was just a regular college kid."

“So,” Jason drawled with imploring eyes, “we’re doing this?”

Percy smirked, “Yeah, but for the record, I’m only in it for the food.”

______

If there was one thing that Jason Grace hated with a passion, it was being at one of his father’s business dinners. They were full of posh doctors who spoke with snobby accents and drank glasses of champagne all night. The dinner was only a little more tolerable because Percy was there with him. Jason had taken Piper’s advice and decided to just bite the bullet by asking Percy to accompany him to his father’s dinner as his date. His totally platonic date.

And so Jason was dressed in a suit and tie, standing in a crowded ballroom with a glass of rose champagne in hand. The large room was filled with people making small talk, soft jazz music playing in the background. He brought his glass to take a sip, gently pressing his free hand against the small of Percy’s back as they made their way over to where their table. Jason thought Percy looked as beautiful as ever, wearing a suit and tie that complimented his sea green eyes and made the smile that he beamed at Jason seem even brighter.

“So this is what a dinner thrown by the infamous Zeus Grace looks like.” Percy murmured, taking in his surroundings.

“Unfortunately,” said Jason. He pulled out Percy’s chair for him and took the seat next to the black-haired boy. “I’ve been to enough of these that they’ve sort of lost their pizzazz.”

“Ooh, what are these?” Percy asked Jason, picking up a hors d’oeuvre from one of the food trays from the table they were sitting at. He held up the small food up to his face to squint at it. “They’re like little tiny finger sandwiches.”

“They’re hors d’oeuvres,” Jason explained, grabbing one for himself.

“They’re delicious,” Percy decided once he’d taken a bite of one and then proceeded to shove several into his mouth. Seeing Jason’s horrified face, he paused mid-bite and asked, “What?”

“You’re only supposed to take one.”

Percy lifted his eyebrows at Jason. “One?” he mumbled around the food in his mouth. “I’ll need, like, fifty of these to get full.”

“That’s not the point of them.”

“So what is the point?”

“I don’t know. They’re decoration, I guess.”

“You god-damn rich people, I swear,” Percy said, shaking his head.

Jason opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted by one of his father’s partners clapping him on the back. “Jason Grace!” the man exclaimed. “Glad to see you here.”

“You too, Mr. Allen,” Jason smiled at the older man.

“Is this your boyfriend?” He asked the blond, eyes flickering between the two. Percy didn’t seem to miss when his eyes glance down to where Jason’s hand rested on his bicep. Noticing it too, Jason removed his hand and placed it palm down on the table.

He shook her head, blushing a bit. “No, this is Percy,” the blond was quick to say. “We’re just friends.”

“Oh,” the man said and right about that moment was when Percy stopped listening to the conversation because they started using crazy medical terminology.

He found himself glancing around the room, studying the guests of the party. Most of the people there were of the upper class and seemed well off, wearing expensive clothes and covered in exquisite jewelry. Percy felt a bit like a fish out of water among them in his old suit and tie, but Jason had assured him that no one would really care about what he wore. He even combed his normally unkempt hair, which was a natural phenomenon in itself.

Despite all of this, Percy still felt very much left out.

He was from the slums of New York City and his mother had to work three jobs just to take care of them. He was basically the poster kid for growing up poor. He was only at Olympus University because he got a full-ride scholarship for swimming. And now here he was being dragged to fancy dinners by Jason freakin’ Grace.

He wondered why Jason even brought him in the first place. Maybe he felt guilty? Because c’mon, the guy walked around in Calvin Klein underwear while Percy wore boxer-briefs that came from a six-pack out of Wal-Mart. So, yeah, maybe Jason looked at him and thought, Let’s get the poor kid introduced to the world where not having enough money is never a thing.

Percy was jostled out of his thoughts when Jason leaned closer to him, the smell of his expensive cologne suddenly way too strong, as he said, “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Percy shrugged, smirking as he did so. “I don’t mind listening to you talk medical – it’s kind of sexy.” Okay, maybe he accidentally said the last part out loud, but the comment made Jason duck his head, blushing.

Percy wasn’t lying when he said he found Jason sexy. In actuality, Percy was totally attracted to him, but the thing that scared him was being with a guy. He didn’t have anything against homosexuals, but he never thought of himself as one considering he’d had plenty of girlfriends – at least, until Jason came around.

And now he was scared. His last relationship went up in flames and now he was battling with his sexuality, which in itself would be enough to deter anyone from being romantically involved with a friend. A really good friend. Who he didn’t want to lose over being in a relationship.

“Percy,” Jason called, breaking the green-eyed boy out of his thoughts.

Percy looked at the blond and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, ADHD, I get distracted easily.”

“S’okay,” Jason said, shrugging. “But about the boyfriend thing – everyone from my dad’s practice has been asking about me bringing a date and this is the first time I actually brought one.”

“It’s totally fine.” Percy took another hors d’oeuvre, which earned him a deathly glare from the blond. “I don’t blame him for thinking I’m your boyfriend. I’m ridiculously hot and kissable.”

“Are you sure?” Jason asked, bringing his glass of champagne to his lips to take a sip.

Percy narrowed his eyes at the blond. “I’m starting to think that you’re not okay with me being mistaken as your boyfriend.”

Jason nearly does a spit take, setting his champagne on the table. “Me? What?” He scoffs. “You just seemed surprisingly chill despite the whole just friends thing.” He explained, using his hands to make air quotes.

“Friends get mistaken for couples all the time, no biggie.”

“Yeah, friends who are secretly in love with each other, maybe.”

“Well, good thing we’re not in love with each other, right?” Percy laughed nervously, looking away from Jason.

He could almost hear all the warning alarms going off in his head. He did not like the road this conversation was headed down. Next thing he knew, Jason was going to ask about the kiss a few weeks ago and Percy would be forced to explain that yeah, he found the blond irresistibly hot, but wasn’t looking for anything serious. Or at least that’s what he told himself.

The awkward tension was only made even more awkward when Zeus Grace made his way over to the pair. Percy was a little surprised to see how much Jason resembled his father – the same striking blue eyes, sharp features, and naturally stoic expression. His gaze made Percy squirm in his seat as he watched the two younger men.

Jason and his father had what you would call a tumultuous relationship. It spawned from Zeus’s affair with Jason’s mother, Beryl, that happened while Zeus was married to Hera, his wife of ten years at the time. Hera often took her hate for Beryl out on Thalia and Jason, which sort of made it hard to talk to his father without mentioning his spiteful wife.

Not to mention the fact that Jason was always living in his father’s shadow. Zeus had been a stellar football player at Olympus, got excellent grades, and graduated magna cum laude. Then, he created his own hospital, becoming one of the best surgeons in the world. So, naturally, Jason was expected to live up to his father’s expectations.

“Jason, I’m glad you could make it son,” the older Grace said. He jerked his head towards the green-eyed boy and asked, “Is this the date your sister was rambling on about?”

The blonde gave his father a tense smile and nodded, gesturing to the green-eyed boy beside him. “Dad, this is Percy Jackson. He’s one of the top swimmers in the nation and –”

“—Poseidon’s son, isn’t he?” Zeus questioned.

“Uh, yeah,” Jason said, sensing his father’s shift in attitude.

“I’m starting to get the feeling that your dad doesn’t like me.” Percy whispered into the blond’s ear. It mustn’t have been much of a whisper because he received a glare from the older man that closely resembled the one he was used to getting from Jason.

“Jason, may I speak with you in private?” Zeus asked, his tone a bit guarded. The blond nodded and followed his father out into the hallway where there weren’t as many people. Jason just knew that he was about to hear it from his father.

“What in the world possessed you into thinking that bringing Poseidon’s son would be a good idea?” his father all but yelled. “Are you trying to mock our family by bringing him to my dinner?”

“He’s not like his father, I promise.”

“I don’t care.” Zeus said, his eyebrows knitted together into a frown just as the realization hit him. “Do you have feelings for him?” He asked slowly. His voice was just above a whisper, but it was even more terrifying than him yelling.

“Yes,” said Jason, “but –”

“You are forbidden to see him.”

“I’m what?” Jason spat, lips curling into a snarl.

“As long as I’m alive, you will not date Percy Jackson. I will not have him ruin our family name.”

Something in Jason suddenly snapped then. He balled his hands into fists as he said, “Our family name was ruined years ago when you had an affair with my mom. You’re the one telling me who I can’t be in a relationship with when you should’ve told yourself not to have sex with my mom.” He stormed out then, grabbing Percy by the arm as he walked out of the building.

Percy followed him to the car, pouting as he said, “I didn’t finish my champagne.” When the blond didn’t respond, Percy definitely knew something was up. Jason never passed up a chance to make fun of him.

Instead, the blond leant against the side of his car, holding his head in his hands. His chest rose and fell with each heavy breath and Percy stood beside him awkwardly. “I’m guessing that talk with your dad didn’t go well,” the green-eyed boy said.

“That’s the understatement of the year,” the blond murmured, running a hand over his face. He looked over at Percy, blue eyes glinting in the moonlight as he said, “He’s such a dick.”

“Whoa,” Percy breathed. “That’s the closest thing to a curse word that’s come out of your mouth, so I’m assuming you two had a fight. What happened?”

Jason’s breath hitched. Should he really tell Percy about the entirety of the fight, including the part where he admitted to his father that he had feelings for the green-eyed boy? Piper did say to drop hints and while this would be an atomic bomb, he really wanted to come clean. He just couldn’t.

“He told me we can’t be friends anymore because of your dad,” Jason admitted. “I don’t even know why he cares so much – the big three rivalry was years ago. And he’s one to talk about who can see who because he had an affair with my mom.”

“He is a complete dick,” Percy agreed. “Are you sure your dad isn’t a communist?”

Jason’s eyebrows furrowed together as he looked at the green-eyed boy in confusion. “What?”

“Maybe your dad is so controlling because he cares about you.” Percy told him, shoving his hands into his pockets. “And I don’t blame him for hating my father. He wasn’t exactly the number one dad. I’ve never even met him.”

“I’m sorry,” Jason said sincerely.

“Bonding over our dad problems is so much better than being at a dinner with a whole bunch of snobs.”

“Way better,” Jason agreed, getting into the car. Percy settled into the passenger seat beside him, leaning his head back against the headrest as the blond took off. He shut his eyes and listened to the twenty one pilots song playing on the radio.

_Oh, oh, I'm falling, so I'm taking my time on my ride._

_Oh, I'm falling, so I'm taking my time on my ride._

“Percy.” Jason said, making the green-eyed boy look at him. “I’m really glad I met you.”

“Me too,” Percy replied without missing a beat.


	8. you're not an angel either

The worst thing about having a crush on Percy Jackson was that he was too flirty and touchy.

At any given time, Jason could spot him standing on the common grounds talking to a girl who happened to look up at him through her lashes, her chest splayed forward to display her breast. Percy would lean forward to whisper something in her ear and the girl would throw her head back, laughing way too over eagerly. Watching this occur almost every day, with different people made Jason's chest clench in jealously.

So what if he might have given the impression that he didn't like Percy? Truth was, Jason felt more than crush towards the green-eyed boy. It definitely wasn't love, but he couldn't quite place what the feeling was whenever Percy shot a dimpled grin his way.

And Percy didn't make it any easier for Jason. 

Not only was he too flirty with other people, but with Jason, too. Percy would say flirty things without thinking about them – probably because of his ADHD – and the implied meaning of his words left Jason blushing.

_Exhibit A:_

Jason would groan, setting his glasses and pencil down on the table in the library. He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, "I really don't wanna do this." Jason pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well, there are other things you could be doing..." Percy would say, leaning towards him and placing his head on Jason's shoulder. He looked up at Jason through his ridiculously long eyelashes.

"Like what?" Jason pondered aloud.

"Me," Percy winked.

Jason shoved the green-eyed boy off of him, wrinkling his nose in mock disgust. He suddenly felt the loss of Percy's warmth. “As if.”

"I'm kidding," Percy said, removing himself from Jason's side with a laugh. "Don't flatter yourself."

_Exhibit B:_

Almost every Saturday night, Percy could be spotted in the bleachers at Jason’s football games next to Piper and Leo. Most of the time he was shirtless, with the number 15 written on his bare chest as he cheered on his favorite football player. Jason could almost always hear him chanting his name, but by nature, Leo was always the loudest, blowing his bullhorn in uneven intervals. Piper sat next to them with an exasperated look on her face as she sipped from her soda.

Once the horn blew, signaling the end of the game, Percy bounded out of the stands to run over to the blond. Jason didn’t have any time to prepare himself for the physical attack from the green-eyed boy, nearly falling over as Percy launched himself onto him, his arms hanging around Jason’s shoulders.

“My favorite football player!” Percy grinned as he planted a big kiss on Jason’s cheek. “You did so well, Jace!”

Jason blushed as Leo rolled his eyes, saying, “Get a room already.” Piper elbowed Leo in the side, whispering something into his ear that made Leo’s eyes widen and a smirk to break out on his face. For a second Jason wondered what the brunette had told Leo, but then Piper was saying, “Hey, let’s go out to eat somewhere!”

And then Percy was beaming beside him, always excited whenever food was brought into a conversation. “Yeah, let’s go!” Percy said.

“There’s this Thai place I heard about – I think it’s called Thai Tanic…” Jason’s mind drifted off from the conversation as Percy discreetly intertwined his fingers with Jason’s, the blond’s mind short circuiting for a brief moment. As they made their way to the parking lot, Percy kept his hand in Jason’s, leaning a bit into his touch.

_Exhibit C:_

Whenever they went out to eat with Piper and Leo, Percy would sit on the same side of the booth and completely ignore the boundary between just friends and something more. It was like he had never heard of a thing called personal space. The green-eyed boy would place his arm behind Jason overprotectively, his leg pressed up firmly against the blond’s.

Every time Percy would shift restlessly, Jason’s heartbeat would speed up significantly. And sometimes, Jason would catch Percy staring at him out of the corner of his eye which was a bit nerve-wracking because hey, Percy Jackson was staring at him. And then Piper and Leo would proceed to tease the fuck out of them to the point where Jason would blush and hide his reddened face in the green-eyed boy’s shoulder.

Literally anyone who wasn’t friends with the two of them would assume that they were dating.

So, yeah, back to the present. Having a crush – or whatever this was – on Perseus Jackson was not easy with him being so touchy. Jason still didn’t know if Percy was doing it unintentionally or doing it to drive him crazy. Maybe all of it was just platonic? That had to be it.

…

Right?

Jason groaned, letting his head fall back against the wall behind him. He was sitting on Percy’s bed, his legs dangling off the edge. He continued to let his head hit the wall with a loud thump, thump, thump. Maybe if he hit his head hard enough, all of these thoughts would stop swirling around his mind at a mile a minute.

“Are you trying to give yourself a concussion or what?” The blond opened his eyes to see Percy laying spread eagle on the wooden floor, his Latin textbook resting on his chest as he glared at the blond. “I’m trying to study.”

Jason snorted, opting not to look at Percy so he could glare at the ceiling. “You? Studying? Those two words don’t belong in the same sentence.”

Percy rolled his eyes, shoving away his textbook to make his way toward the bed, trying to avoid impaling himself on the random items scattered around the floor. He plopped onto the bed next to Jason. “So what has you down in the dumps?” He asked, resting his head on the blond’s shoulder.

Jason looked down at Percy, his green eyes watching him intently, eyelashes framing them perfectly. His cheeks were tinted pink and – shit, Jason realized he was staring.

“Nothing.”

“Lies,” Percy coughs. “You literally look like someone pissed in your cereal this morning.”

Jason was close to spitting it out, saying, “I think I’m in love with you.” But then he realized the implications of those words. Things would be awkward between them. Percy could hate him. He could lose one of his best friends.

And well, Jason couldn’t afford any of those things. Percy was amazing and cute and just everything he wanted, but if having him would jeopardize everything he knew and loved it wasn’t worth it. Plus, Percy said he wasn’t gay – though, those exact words never came out of his mouth. But still.

Percy was still staring at him, expecting an answer and Jason knew he was stubborn enough to wait years for a response, so he said the first thing that came out of his mouth.

“Uh, I just remembered – I have to feed my cat.” He scrambled up from the bed and nearly sprinted from the room.

As he retreated down the hall, he heard Percy yell back, “You don’t even have a cat!”

Well, shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm aware that i haven't updated in a super long time and i'm sooo sorry! it's my senior year and it's just been really stressful keeping track of everything i have to do, but i'm on break right so i'm planning on writing a lot. 
> 
> plus, it helps that i have a lot of the future chapters already written, i just have to write a couple of filler chapters with a lot of fluff and angst and then we're good lol. 
> 
> and i'm aware that this chapter is super short, but i just wanted to get a lil something up for you guys. i've already started writing the next chapter so expect that in the next week or so :)
> 
> thanks to everyone who's stuck around and again, i'm so sorry for not updating sooner!


	9. love doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints

Jason was avoiding him.

Percy had enough experience with avoiding someone. He was practically a major in Avoiding 101 considering all the classes and teachers he’d managed to avoid throughout high school. So, yeah, he knew pretty well what it was like to be avoiding something and Jason was definitely avoiding him on purpose.

If the fact that the blond wasn’t answering his calls or texts wasn’t reason enough, Percy couldn’t seem to find time alone with him.

Even though they had a class together, Jason would purposely arrive later than him and leave as soon as the class was dismissed so Percy didn’t even get a chance to back him into a corner. Whenever Percy walked into the library, the blond would gather his belongings and make a beeline for the exit. Seeing him after practice was a lost cause because swimming practice finished long after football did, so he never caught the blond in the locker room. Jason even changed his normal schedule so that Percy never knew when the blond would be in his room.

Percy didn’t understand why Jason was avoiding him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t made any impulsive decisions that would ruin their friendship. And when he went to ask Piper what was up, she simply said, “He’s going through some things. He’ll come around eventually.” Percy had to resist the urge to stomp his foot and throw a tantrum because no one avoided Percy Jackson.

He didn’t even know why he cared so much. So what if Jason was avoiding him? He should just act like he didn’t care and find another blond football player to be friends with. Luke Castellan would make a good candidate. Well, except for the fact that they hadn’t been friends since sophomore year and Luke sort of hated Percy after he’d …

The honest truth was that Jason was Percy’s closest friend besides Rachel and he missed the blond’s presence in his life. If Jason wouldn’t come to him, Percy would have to go to Jason.

He picked up his cell phone and the university’s directory. He flipped through the book’s pages until he managed to find what he was looking for – Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano’s number. Jason’s floor was co-ed and she was the resident RA of his floor. If anyone knew of Jason’s whereabouts it would be here seeing as dorm members were required to check in with their RA.

He dialed the number, his heart beat ringing in his ears as he nervously waited for Reyna to answer the phone.

If he was being completely honest, Reyna scared the shit out of him. She was hands down one of the scariest women he had ever met. She could literally silence a room with a single glance. Not to mention, Reyna was the captain of the women’s wrestling team. Rumor had it that she once made one of her competitors forfeit before she even stepped on the mat.

“Hi,” Percy said into his phone once the ringing ceased, his uneasiness heard in his voice.

“Who is this and why are you calling?” Of course, Reyna would get straight to the point.

Percy picked at the lint on his striped sweater, trying to keep himself occupied as his brain tried transfer the thoughts swirling in his mind into words that would be understandable. “I’m, uh, Percy Jackson and I was, um, wondering where I can find Jason Grace?”

“Percy Jackson, huh?” she said his name like it genuinely interested her. A pause. “Are you the one Jason has been moping about?”

“Considering I haven’t seen him in over two weeks, I’m not exactly sure.”

Another pause. Percy bit his lip. Papers rustled in the background.

“I think he’s in his room right now, but –” He didn’t want to hear the end of the sentence and immediately took off for the blond’s dormitory.

The entire way, he kept thinking about the reasons Jason might be avoiding him. Maybe he finally realized that Percy probably wasn’t the greatest friend out there? What if he had accidentally fucked up somewhere and didn’t know about it? Shit, he’d probably fucked up. He was notorious for that. If there was an award for Biggest Fuck Up of 2016, Percy would have won the Nobel Peace Prize for it.

Percy could hear his blood rush through his ears. What if Jason was the first person to realize that he fucked up everything he touched? What if Rachel, Piper, or Leo decided that they didn’t want to be his friend anymore either? He had to know what he’d done – why Jason was avoiding him? When –

When had he reached Jason’s room, standing face to face with the blond in question? Jason was staring at him as if he’d grown a second head, eyebrows furrowed and mouth tilted downward into a frown.

“Percy, wh –” Before Jason could even conclude the question, words began to spill out the green-eyed boy’s mouth.

“Jason, I’m …” Percy couldn’t focus on the blond, couldn’t focus on what he was trying to say. “I don’t know what I did. I probably fucked up somewhere to make you – you’re avoiding me and I don’t why. Whatever I did, I didn’t mean it or do it on purpose, I just –” He stopped rambling to take a shuddering breath as he was pulled into the blond’s room, the door shutting behind him.

“What are you talking about, Percy?” Jason said, a look of confusion flitting across his face.

His vision blurred as he tugged at the sleeves of his hoodie, trying to control the downward spiral of his thoughts. “No one wants me because I always fuck up! Everyone leaves me. My dad left because – because I wasn’t good enough. And you’re avoiding me because I did something and–”

“Shh, Percy,” Jason said, grabbing the green-eyed boy by the wrists. He led them to his bed, positioning them so that Percy was laying beside him. For some reason, being enveloped in Jason’s arms calmed him down until his breathing was relatively normal and he could think reasonably straight.

Jason brought one hand up to brush away the trail of tears going down his face. “Percy, you did nothing wrong. I was avoiding you for selfish reasons. I’m sorry I upset you so much, but if you want to talk about what’s really bothering you, we can.”

Percy frowned. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Talking about what triggered his panic attack would open doors that he preferred to stay closed. There was some topics that Percy found difficult talking about and he might have been close to Jason, but they weren’t close enough for him to warrant a reason why he had gotten so wound up over the blond avoiding him.

He stared at the ceiling, feeling Jason’s worried gaze on him. The blond reached over to brush his hair out of his face and he was reminded that it was probably time for him to get a haircut. He couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten one. When was it? July?

“Percy,” Jason said in that authoritative voice of his. Percy purposely didn’t look at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about what made you so upset?”

He turned his head to glare at the blond. “You don’t get to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Act like you care when you clearly don’t.”

“How do you know that I don’t care?”

“You avoided me for three weeks! No explanation, no warning, just up and left. Who the fuck does that kind of shit?” Percy’s New York accent was starting to come out like it did whenever he got too wound up. He clenched his fists, finger nails digging into the skin, and counted from one to ten to try and calm his nerves. He attempted to keep his voice calm as he said, “I just came over to know why you were avoiding me.”

He glanced over to look at Jason. For a moment, Percy wished he could read the blond’s mind and see what he was thinking. Compared to his normally guarded expression, Jason’s face was a mix of fear and something else Percy couldn’t identify.

Jason blinked slowly as he said, “I was avoiding you because I was scared.”

“Scared?” Percy repeated. What the hell did that have to do with Jason avoiding him? He must have said that last part aloud because the blond groaned, running a hand over his face and mumbling something that sounded like a string of curse words under his breath.

“Percy, I was scared because I was starting to feel things for you. I know we agreed that things didn’t have to be awkward between us, but you were just so _touchy_ and _flirty_ and I knew that it meant nothing to you and I … I couldn’t face what I was feeling and what it would mean for us and how it would change the dynamic of our friendship. I wasn’t ready to face the implications of what my feelings meant so I ran. Ran away from how I felt, from you. It was stupid, I know. And I’m sorry that you thought you did something to chase me away and – why are you staring at me like that?” Jason mumbled, his cheeks and neck turning a dark shade of red.

Percy had tried to keep a straight face through Jason’s whole spiel. At first, he was a little in shock, but he couldn’t resist it now. A laugh bubbled out of his mouth and he tried to silence but it was too late and then he giggling into Jason’s shoulder. He felt the blond tense up against him as he said, “Hey, would you care to explain why you’re laughing at me?”

Once he could keep a straight face, the green-eyed boy looked up into the blond’s cerulean eyes. “Jason,” he said slowly, “I was _touchy_ and _flirty_ with you because I _like_ you.”

“Wait, what?” Jason was now staring at him with a look of sheer disbelief as if he’d just told him Santa Claus was real. “But you’re not –”

"Gay?" Percy finished for him. Jason nodded, wide-eyed. "I don’t really like labels.”

The blond opened his mouth and then promptly closed it. “… but you said you wanted to be ‘just friends?’”

Percy bit his lip, trying to figure out what he wanted to say. Of course, he liked Jason. He literally looked like a model and was a generally nice person all around. He just had a lot of emotional baggage he had to deal with.

“When I said that I wanted us to be just friends, that was mostly just me trying to get rid of my feelings towards you, but I can't. I can't get enough of the way you look at me like I'm the best person in the world, the way your eyes sparkle, and your laugh. You're special, Jason, because you're the only guy I've ever had feelings for and it freaked me out - that's why I ran away that morning I kissed. I thought you would hate me for having feelings towards you, so I lied. And since then, I’ve been trying to drop hints that I like you, which apparently everyone has noticed except for you.”

“Really?”

Percy rolled his eyes. “Yes, _really_.”

“So, what are we then?”

“Jason, if you wanted to ask me out, you could have just said so.”

“Percy,” Jason warned.

“I don’t know.” Percy shrugged noncommittally. “Like I said, I don’t like labels. All I know is that I like you and you like me.”

“I guess we figure out what that means later,” Jason said, yawning. “For now, can I please go back to sleep? It’s five thirty in the morning.”

Percy smiled sheepishly, moving closer to the blond so that they could cuddle comfortably. “Sorry, I just have trouble sleeping. I didn’t –”

“Percy.”

“Okay, sleeping, got it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's 3 am and i just wrote two thousand words so sorry if there's any mistakes. i'm gonna check it in the morning but for now, i'm not sure how i feel about the ending of this chapter, but hey, it's a considerably lengthy update. you're welcome. :)
> 
> also, if you haven't already, listen to Hamilton! I am literally obsessed with it. and when i say obsessed i mean it. the music and the characters are so well-written and every time i listen to it, i notice something new. i just watched lin-manuel miranda for like three hours and he gave me inspiration, so thank lin-manuel for this chapter because he's the reason this chapter is up right now.


	10. helpless

The one word that described how Jason Grace felt about Percy Jackson was helpless. Completely and utterly helplessly in love.

From the moment he met the green-eyed boy, he couldn't deny that there was some sort of chemistry between them and when they looked into each other's eyes for the first time, a shiver went down the small of his back. He couldn't stop the giddy feeling he felt when he realized that he had Latin class with Percy and even now, when they were teetering between the thin line of friendship and love, Jason still felt the same feeling of butterflies taking flight in his chest that he encountered on day one. And every moment they spent together -- whether it was studying or just simply feeling Percy's presence beside him -- made him fall even more irrevocably in love. Whenever he was around Percy, his brain was filled with an endless chant of  _mine, mine, mine._

Honestly, the only way he could describe how he felt was sort of like being thrown into the deep end of the pool and praying to whatever deities existed that he would somehow make it out alive and breathing. 

"Jason, you good?" Leo asked.

Said boy stirred in his seat, his mind being drawn back to the present. He was in the university's cafe with Leo, the Hispanic boy giving him an odd look. Jason's gaze flickered between his untouched salad sitting in front of him and back to Leo who sat across from him. His thoughts were a messy string of words that he couldn't put together to form a coherent sentence, so he settled for an eloquent, "Huh?"

 "You were just ... staring off in the distance," Leo explained. He placed his elbows on the table and rested his face innocently on his open palm, giving the blond his complete and undivided attention. "Care to explain?"

Jason felt the opened his cheeks start to heat up. What was he supposed to say to Leo? _Hey, I know we're not technically dating, but I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Percy and the sound of his voice and his eyes and_ \-- Yeah, no. He'd rather shoot himself in the leg.

Leo raised his eyebrows comically, his eyebrows disappearing underneath his halo of unruly curls. And then his face broke out into a shit-eating grin. "Are you thinking about _Percy_?" He purposely emphasized the green-eyed boy's name so that it sounded more like Per-cy. Jason rolled his eyes in annoyance, but his lips still twisted upwards at the sound of his lover's name. He tried to hide the doting look on his face by covering his face with his hands.

"Shut up," he said, but it was almost inaudible due to the fact that his voice was muffled by his hands.

"Oh my god, dude! Like I knew you liked him before, but you're actually, like, in love with him." He heard Leo let out a loud chuckle before the Hispanic boy said, "You're fucked."

Jason lifted his head to glare passionately at him. "I can't wait till you fall in love so I can you the same amount of shit you're giving me right now."

Leo waved his hand dismissively, almost as if to say, ' _yeah, right, like I'm actually gonna fall in love.'_ It only made Jason glare harder. "So, have you told Percy yet?"

"I don't know if you're aware, but we're not exactly dating at the moment. We're just seeing where things go and I don't want to ruin things by admitting my feelings too early."

Now, it was Leo's turn to roll his eyes. He leaned forward and said in all seriousness, "You need to stop being such a fucking drama queen and just admit your goddamn feelings, Grace! Don't let something like love keep you from living your life! Capture every moment! Seize the day! And please stop sounding like one of those girls from  _The Bachelor_."

Jason cringed. "You watch that show?"

"Piper does, I just happen to be in the same room."

Jason raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"It's a really good show, okay!" Leo said defensively. "Nick and Rachel would make the cutest couple."

Jason opened his mouth to respond, but thankfully, his phone started ringing in his pocket. He had never been so happy to hear the notes coming from his iPhone than at this exact moment -- any conversation would be better than the one he was currently having with his best friend. He answered the phone without looking at the caller ID and as soon as he heard the voice on the other side of the line, he turned into a giggling schoolboy. Leo, knowing it was Percy just from the look on Jason's face alone, started to bounce in his seat and whisper loudly across the table. "Man up, Grace." He said. "Grow some balls! Tell him how ya feel! Admit your feelings!"

Jason pulled the phone away from his ear to say, "Percy says to shut up."

"Tell him to bring his fat ass over here and catch me outside, how 'bout that."

Jason cackled at the Hispanic boy's response before resuming his conversation with his not-so-really-boyfriend. Suddenly, he stood up, the legs of his chair scraping loudly against the linoleum floor. He placed a hand over his phone, saying, "Hey, Leo, I gotta go. Percy wants to study for our Latin test coming up."

"You know damn well y'all are not going to get any work done, but okay. Leave me here to rot, I guess." Leo said, pulling his own phone out of his pocket, his one-track mind already becoming occupied.

Jason hastily made his way over to Percy's dorm building. Before he could even knock on the door to Percy's room, the door was opening and he was being pulled inside by the collar of his button up. Once he regained his sense of balance, Jason noticed that Percy was unable to stay still. His fingers were fidgeting from one thing to the next and he was bouncing on the tip of his toes. It was almost like he was vibrating from excitement.

"Hey, you." Jason smiled, leaning down to place a kiss to the shorter boy's forehead. "What are you so excited about?"

The question seemed to only intensify Percy's excitement, his ADHD kicking in. He spat out his words in rapid fire, "The biggest swim meet of the year is in two days! I have been training for this day for the past one hundred and eighty five days. I'm trying to breaking the record for the fastest 800 meter race. If I manage to do it, I'll make school history and beat my dad's record. And plus, there might be Olympic scouts there. My whole future literally depends on this meet. Do you know how big of a deal this is for me?" 

"Very?"

"A very big deal," he confirmed. "Do you think you can make it? I'm gonna need as many people as I can to cheer me on and I already convinced Piper and Leo to come."

One look into Percy's eyes and he knew that he couldn't say no. "Of course," Jason smiled. "Anything to make you happy."

The smile Percy gave him was positively radiant. Jason couldn't help but give Percy a small peck on the lips. The words  _I love you_ were on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't find it within himself to utter the words and put them out there in the open. Instead of speaking what was really on his mind, he said, "So about that Latin test." And then Percy was on a completely different tangent, Jason's heart swelling as his watched the love of his life talk.

Yeah, Jason was helplessly in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is hella short and definitely a filler chapter, but i just wanted to get something out there before shit happens. like, be ready. buckle your seatbelt, lmao. also, sorry for any mistakes bc i totally wrote this in like three hours and haven't really edited it. 
> 
> also, it's february, so i'm gonna try to update every week all in the name of love :)


	11. hurricane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lil valentine's day present to my loves! x
> 
> also, if you read this story on fanfiction.net, i did change a lot of this chapter.

There was a knock on Jason's dorm room door, causing the blonde to groan before he answered it. His attitude quickly changed, though, once he caught sight of his Percy standing in his doorway, hands shoved in the pockets of his striped green hoodie. He gave Jason a lopsided grin, leaning against the wall.

"Hi." Jason said dumbly.

"Hey," Percy winked at him, inviting himself into the room and laying eagle spread on Jason's bed. He grinned at the blonde, "So do you know what today is?"

"Wednesday?" Jason deadpanned, causing the green-eyed boy to laugh and shake his head. "What is it then?"

"The big swim meet," said Percy, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You know, the meet before state championship. The meet where there'll be a whole bunch of scouts. The meet I've been telling you about for the past week?"

Jason groaned and ran a hand over his face.

 Percy sat up on his elbows. "You forgot, didn't you?"

"I've just been so busy with all of my classes and football and I've got a shit-load of material to cover for my test in Physics," the blonde said, gesturing towards the stack of books from the library and the mountain of notes he'd taken. "I promise I'll make it to the next meet."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Like you promised to come tonight?" 

"Percy." Jason sat on the bed next to his boyfriend, taking his hand in his. "I swear I'll make it to the next meet. Gay scout's honor."

The green-eyed boy laughed, "Really, Grace?"

"What, Jackson? It's the only legit swear," Jason replied without missing a beat, leaning over to plant a kiss to Percy's lips.

He pulled away, but the green-eyed boy had other plans. He wrapped a hand around the back of Jason's neck and pulled him in for another kiss, this one lasting a lot longer and way more passionate.

Percy's tongue grazed along the blonde's lower lip, asking for permission to enter. Jason gladly obliged and let the older boy explore his mouth, a small moan escaping from his throat. Before he knew it, Percy broke the kiss and was already standing. 

"As much fun as kissing you is, I really must be going," Percy announced, holding out a hand to help the blonde off of the bed. Jason accepted it and was lifted to his feet.

"Do you have to go?"

"If I don't want to disappoint my dad," Percy mumbled so low that Jason almost didn't hear it. Then, a little louder, he continued. “I talked to my dad the other day and he said he’d make it.”

“I hope he makes it,” Jason said, genuinely meaning it. He knew what it felt like to feel disappointed when his own dad went back on his promise to go to his football games. He would  never wish that feeling on Percy.

He sighed and gave the green-eyed boy one last chaste kiss before shoving him out of his room, saying, "You have to go before you're late...again. Good luck."

 And then Percy was off, leaving Jason to himself. He turned around to face the pile of work he'd made that was increasing in size every second he stared at it.

If he wanted to be done by at least midnight, he'd have to start now. Ugh.

* * *

 Percy was nervous.

 Not even like jittery nervous, but ‘wow I feel like I might throw up’ nervous. He went through his whole warm up routine – stretching and listening to his favorite White Stripes album – and the whole time, he kept looking up into the crowd. Instead of seeing his father’s face, he saw tons of scouts holding clipboards and pens who were already watching him before the race even started. Normally, he would be able to deal with the nerves and the people watching, but knowing that his future depended solely on this meet made his throat constrict. And the fact that he had severe ADHD was not helping at all. 

That was part of the reason that he'd asked Jason to come to this meet. He usually didn't ask his friends to come to his meets because he knew they had better things to do, like homework, working at their jobs, etc, and he didn't want to be a burden. Now, he just really wished that he had asked more people to come to the meet. Right now, all he needed was a familiar face in the crowd to keep his nerves at bay.

"Jackson!" 

Percy was shaken out of his thoughts as he realized that Coach Hedge was glaring at him. "Huh?" he managed to say.

"You're up next."

"'Kay, coach." He said, tossing the irritated man a thumbs up.

Percy ripped off his headphones reached into the duffle bag at his side to retrieve his goggles and swimming cap. As he leaned over, he noticed a sign with his name on it and heard cheers that sounded suspiciously like -- Leo and Piper. He grinned over at them, waving  as he walked over to the edge of the pool. He tucked his overgrown hair into his swim cap and fastened his goggles over his eyes.

Percy took notice of the people he was racing against. There was Ethan Nakamura from some school he couldn't remember, Dakota What's-His-Name from Somewhere, and another boy he didn't recognize. He didn't mean to sound cocky, but he knew that he could easily beat all of his opponents without even trying. He was only racing himself. All he had to do was beat the school's record and if the scouts saw, that would only be bonus points.

He drew in a deep breath as the announcer's voice boomed over the PA system, stating the event and the participant's names.

 _One_ , breath in.

 _Two_ , breath out.

"On your mark."

 _Three_ , breath in.

"Get set."

 _Four_ , breath out.

 _Five_ , breath in.

"Go!"

Percy launched off of the platform, executing a perfect dive. As soon as he hit water, his arms and legs began to pump quickly. He tried not to think about winning or the time, but rather, on focusing on his movements and breathing. Underneath the water, he could hear the distorted sounds of people cheering. He imagined his dad up in the stands, smiling at him with an expression full of pride. He imagined his mother watching with happy tears in his eyes. He imagined Jason next to them, too; he was almost like an addition to his family. 

He neared the end of the pool and used his momentum to bounce gracefully off of the wall. For the brief second his head was above the water, he got a glimpse of the stands and was reminded of the bitter truth that his family, nor Jason had come to this meet, knowing how much of a big deal this was for him. He understood why his mother couldn't make it; after all, she was in New York and couldn't afford a plane ticket with the measly paycheck she received every two weeks. But his father and Jason really bothered him. 

Maybe Jason was mad at him. That had to be it, right? Or maybe Jason didn't see him as important? They weren't even dating officially. Maybe this was Jason's way of breaking it off with him, by simply saying he forgot and letting distance get between them. Just of the thought of that happening made Percy's heart skip a beat, struggling to regain his breathing. He felt himself losing control of his lungs, pockets of air escaping from his lips and if the panic surrounding him was bad earlier, it only began to get worse as he realized that he might drown or die. His thoughts of  _Jason, Jason, Jason_  became hazy and then the last thing he could remember was his body sinking to the bottom of the pool.

  

* * *

"Hello?" Jason asked once he slid his fingers across his iPhone's screen. He stuck the phone in between his ear and his shoulder and continued working, hastily finishing his study guide.

"Hey, Jason," he could hear Leo begin. "So, we were at Percy's swim meet tonight and lemme tell you, there was some hot mamas out there--" His sentence was interrupted by a yelp and then a strings of curse words as a scuffle ensued on the other side of the line. Eventually, Piper's voice became clear in Jason's ear as she said, "Jason, there's been an accident."

 

"An accident?" He echoed. He wondered why they were calling him to tell him about an accident. The only reason it would pertain to him was if it was because of -- oh, God. If something happened to Percy, he didn't know what he would do. He stared at the wall in front of him, afraid to speak because he knew that if he did, his voice would crack. After a couple of seconds, he managed to croak out, "Is Percy okay? What happened?" 

"I'm not really sure. I think ... I think he's in a coma. He wasn't responding when the medics arrived." 

Jason felt like he'd just gone through a grueling six hour football practice. His mouth was dry, his limbs felt like lead, and he felt like he was going to throw up everything he ate in the past twelve hours. All he wanted to do was curl under his covers and close his eyes and hope when he opened them, Percy would be beside him, holding him in his muscular arms. There was no way his Percy wouldn't wake up - he was a fighter.

And Jason was going to fight for him, too. 

Pulling on a pair of Converse, Jason stuck his phone in his back pocket just in case and ran out to his car. It took him fifteen minutes to get the hospital, mostly because he took shortcuts and ran several red lights. The only thing on his mind was  _Percy, Percy, Percy_.

Jason parked his car and barrelled through the hospital's doors, running up to the receptionist's desk. A petite woman with elf-like features looked up at him, her brown eyes wide. Before she could open her mouth, he said a bit too harshly, "What room is Percy Jackson in?"

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over." She said, pointedly looking at the clock on the wall behind Jason. "You can come back tomorrow."

Jason had to resist the urge to grab her by the collar of her white button-up (mostly because she was a woman and he was a gentleman), instead settling for leaning over the desk, his nose mere centimeters away from hers. "My boyfriend is somewhere in one of these rooms and is suffering from an injury that I learned about only fifteen minutes ago. I think I deserve to visit him, even if it is only for a couple of minutes, don't you?" He tried not to dwell on the fact that he had called Percy his boyfriend. He could mull over it later, all that mattered was him getting to see Percy's emerald eyes one last time.

She sighed, pulling out a piece of paper from one of the desk's drawers and quickly scribbled something down on it.

"You have twenty minutes," was all she said as she slid the paper towards him.

Jason thanked her before heading down a long corridor with an elevator at the end of it. He entered the elevator, pushing the button for the third floor, like the paper instructed. When he exited, he walked down the hallway, searching for room 128. He found it and stood outside of the door, feeling like his stomach was making its way up his throat. Of course, Jason wanted to see Percy, but he was also a bit scared of the fact that he might not wake up. That was like his worst nightmare coming true. 

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Jason grasped the cold doorknob in his hand and swung open the door.

He didn't know what he was expecting exactly, but he did not expect to see a blonde girl sitting in a chair next to Percy's bed, her fingers intertwined with his. Her eyes flicked up to meet his, grey eyes looking him up and down as if she was trying to figure out what he was doing in Percy's room. He could totally ask her the same thing, but that's pretty much what he didn't do. 

Instead, he said something like, "Uh, w-who are you?"

The girl stood, sauntering over to stand directly in front of Jason. She crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes a bit. He noticed that she gave off the vibe that she knew Percy well and was protective of him.

"I'm Annabeth Chase," she said slowly, "who are you?"

Jason scoffed a little, rolling his eyes. "Oh, you're the infamous Annabeth?"

"Excuse me?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know Percy?" She gestured towards the black-haired teen that laid in the bed they were now standing in front of and Jason finally got a good look at him.

He walked up to bed, looking at how broken Percy seemed, tied up to all sorts of beeping machines through two clear tubes that went into his nostrils. Jason couldn't believe that Percy couldn't even breathe on his own. Percy Jackson, who was one of the most independent person he knew.

Jason ran a hand through Percy's hair and he swore he saw him move into the touch.

"Do you know what happened?" He asked Annabeth suddenly. She nodded, pulling down the sleeves of her maroon sweater over her hands.

"Yeah, the doctors said he went into a coma from holding his breath too long. Most people in the aquatics community call it 'shallow water blackout,' which is the unexplained loss of consciousness." Annabeth explained as if what she was saying was easy to follow. While she spoke, she made little gestures with her hands that Jason, if he were straight, would've found cute, "In essence, descending through the water compresses the gas in the lungs, driving more gas into the blood.

This increases the amount of oxygen available to be taken in, and as the diver ascends through the water, still holding their breath, the blood oxygen level falls much faster than it would without the vertical excursion. Since the relative pressure change is the greatest in the shallowest water, it's pretty normal for blackout to occur in the final stage or just after surfacing, hence the adoption of the term."

Now, Jason prided himself on his level of intelligence, but even he had gotten lost during her 'little' speech somewhere at the term shallow water blackout. He stared at her with his mouth wide open, vaguely wondering how Percy could date someone like Annabeth. She was literally a walking encyclopedia while Percy, on the other hand, wasn't exactly book-smart.

Needless to say, Jason was impressed and slightly wary of his new competition for Percy's affection. Annabeth was undoubtedly gorgeous, what with her princess curls and that California girl look she possessed, and was pretty damn smart. It was no wonder she'd caught Percy's eye in the past.

"Oh," Jason said, looking down at his feet. The one swim meet he didn't go to and this is what happened. A visit to the hospital and the return of his not-really-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

Just then, a nurse walked in carrying a wooden clipboard and looked at them both with a stern look. "It's after visiting hours," the woman said, "you two are going to have to leave. I'm sorry." 

Jason began to leave, but Annabeth stayed behind, simply holding up her hand to show the nurse the blue wristband that was wrapped around her wrist. Jason hadn't noticed it earlier and he wondered why he didn't have one. He was Percy's boyfriend and yet here she was, showing up out of the blue and getting special treatment.

"I'm a partner in a care," Annabeth said, eyes trained on Jason, rather than the nurse. "The patient's mother sent me here for her while she's on a plane from New York."

 Percy's mother sent her? From New York? How long had the two dated if Percy's mom had her on freakin' speed-dial?

The nurse nodded and left after Jason told her he'd be leaving in a minute. He turned to face the other blonde, plastering a wide (and totally fake) smile on his face.

"By the way, I'm Jason Grace," he introduced himself. "Percy's boyfriend."

And then he exited the room, smirking to himself, once he saw Annabeth's shocked expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaand there it is :)


	12. fall in silence from the stars

While staying at the hospital, Jason learned three new things.

One, Annabeth was not good at small talk.

Example:

"What college do you go to, Annabeth?"

"Berkeley."

...

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

...

"What's your major?"

"If I answer, will you stop asking me questions?"

"Sure."

"Architecture."

"Cool."

"Now be quiet, I'm trying to go to sleep."

Two, the hospital food was absolutely horrid. It was like a cross between those microwave dinners from Dollar Tree and the lunch food back in high school - like complete and utter trash. It was still food though, so Jason couldn't really complain.

Wait.

Actually, Jason could complain because while he was sitting in the most uncomfortable chair in the world, debating whether or not he should just starve to death, Annabeth was sitting on the edge of Percy's bed, smirking at him and shoveling spoons of Chipotle into her mouth. Damn her and her ridiculously high budget. As a college student and too stubborn to accept handouts from his wealthy father, Jason was struggling just to buy pens.

Anyways, the third thing he learned was the name of a boy he met in the elevator. Nico di Angelo.

Jason had first met the dark-haired teen on the elevator when he was leaving the hospital for his psychology class. Nico was leaning against the wall, headphones plugged into his ears and his head casted down. He bopped his head softly to the music, strands of dark hair falling into his eyes. Jason tried not to stare as he stepped onto the elevator, the boy simply looking up and giving him the tiniest nod as a form of greeting. His eyes watched Jason carefully and the blond found himself squirming under the gaze of a boy who couldn't be more than eighteen years old, at least a year younger than himself.

"What are you here for?" Jason blurted out and then nearly face-palmed because the boy obviously wasn't listening to him. Obviously.

"Hmm?" The dark-haired boy raised an eyebrow and removed just one earphone from his ear - his way of saying 'don't talk to me.'

Jason felt stupid all of sudden, his cheeks turning a dark shade of red as he stuttered out, "I-I asked what you're here for. I mean, there's obviously not something wrong with you." He waved his hand up and down in a gesture that was lost even to him.

"My sister broke her arm," the boy said, wrapping his black aviator's jacket tighter around himself. Jason noticed that he wore all black - a little goth, but not quite. He was missing the black eyeliner. Though, the boy would totally be able to pull off the look. He was cute in that way. "You?"

"My, uh, friend was in a swimming accident and he's in a coma." Jason said, shrugging. Then before he could stop himself he continued on, "We were trying to figure out things between us and then this happened and his ex-girlfriend showed up out of blue, which probably shouldn't bother me as much as it does and ... you probably think I'm crazy right now." He laughed to himself, shaking his head and wondering why he was talking to a complete stranger about his life problems.

"I don't," the boy replied, his eyes pure black as they focused on Jason. "Everyone's got a little bit of crazy."

They were silent for a while until Jason noticed that the elevator hadn't moved since he stepped in.

"Why aren't we moving?" He asked, biting his lip.

"Because you didn't push the button," the boy deadpanned.

"Oh, wow, thanks for the help." Jason said sarcastically and stepped forward to push the button for the lobby, groaning inwardly at the fact that he was probably going to be late for class. Again. As of late, his punctuality had really been suffering. His speech teacher was probably going to him a zero for class participation once again.

Jason leaned against the wall, crossing his arm over his chest and watching as the boy pushed one of the glowing buttons - number two. "I feel like I've seen you before," he muttered. "Do you go to Olympus?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"That's probably why. I go there, too."

"Freshman?"

"Unfortunately," the boy said and then raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you're on the football team, right?"

The blond grinned to himself. "Yep, number three, star running back."

The elevator doors opened then, revealing the lobby of the hospital. A couple stood in the doorway with agitated expressions, waiting to board the elevator.

Jason turned to the dark-haired boy, extending out a hand. "Well, it was nice meeting you ... "

"Nico," the boy offered, shaking Jason's hand. "Nico di Angelo."

"Nico," the blonde said. "I'm Jason Grace."

* * *

Over the next couple of days, Jason was what you would call 'on edge.' He kept checking his call history on his phone and he wore his old gray Olympus hoodie for the whole week because between worrying about Percy's health and school, he honestly didn't care about his appearance. (Piper, though, teased him relentlessly about his latest wardrobe staple, saying, "You're gay, you're supposed to be fashion forward!" Which was followed by a series of incessant giggles. Whatever. It didn't bother Jason.)

"Ugh," he groaned, closing his eyes and shoving his phone back in his pocket. "The hospital was supposed to call by now!"

Leo sent him a pitiful look from where he was slumped on his bed, his back against the wall. He gestured towards Jason, the bag of cheetos in his hand threatening to spill as he exclaimed, "Dude, you need to relax. If Percy wakes up, his ex, Annabel or whatever, is there. I mean, what's the worse that could happen? It's not like they're gonna hook up in a hospital room."

Jason's eyes widened at the thought of Percy and Annabeth hooking up in the hospital room and Piper glared at the Latino.

" _Leo_ ," she said. "Not helping."

He held up his hands and shrugged. "Sorry," he apologized, glancing over at the blonde who was contemplating jumping out of the window of Leo's dorm room. It was only the second floor, the worst that could happen was a couple of scrapes and bruises. That wouldn't hurt too bad, right? At least he'd have a nice bed to stay in at the hospital instead of that stupid chair.

"... because you need to go out and - Jason, are you listening to me?" Piper was saying and said boy blinked slowly, realizing that he'd been too consumed in his thoughts of possible suicide to hear what the girl was saying.

"Huh?" he wondered out loud and Leo groaned, which seriously was not a good thing because he rarely payed attention to anything. Leo had a really severe case of ADHD and it was a miracle he'd even gotten into college - no offense, Leo.

"Were you even listening?" Piper questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Jason nodded a bit too enthusiatically. "Yeah, you were saying how I need to get out more and ... stuff."

Leo snorted, stuffing a handful of cheetos into his mouth.

She rolled her eyes. "Leo and I are going to this party that Drew invited us to. You remember Drew, right?"

"She's your sister? She's Asian, right?"

"She's really hot," commented Leo, who they both ignored.

"Half Asian, but yeah." Piper waved her hand in the air dismissively before continuing, "My mom's throwing a surprise party for her since she got accepted by some big modeling agency in New York City and she said I can invite some friends over. You should totally come."

"Pipes, you know that I have to be here in case Percy wakes up - "

"Nope, you're going," she decided for him. She stood up and grabbed Jason's hand and dragged him out of the room. "No excuses!"

As the pair passed through the doorway, Jason grabbed onto the door frame in an attempt to get away from Piper. "Help!" He called to Leo.

The Latino laughed, sauntering over to where Piper was trying to pull him off the door. "Sorry, bro, but I need another guy there. Do you know many parties that girl dragged me to? _Literally dragged me?_ "

"Uh, one?"

"Hundreds!"

Piper rolled her eyes. "It was only, like, twenty."

"Still," Leo said. "A lot. So, you're coming, Grace. You owe me."

Then Leo proceeded to release Jason's hand from the door frame, sending the blond flying through the door. The sound of Jason screaming all the way to the end of the hall made Leo chuckle to himself as he went back to eating his cheetos.

* * *

"Piper," Jason whined, tugging at the collar of the too tight polo he was wearing. "I told you that this shirt was too small."

Piper sent him a glare over the punch table, her eyes turning from brown to a dark shade of green that vaguely reminded him of Percy as she poured red punch into a clear glass. "Shut up, you look nice," she said, tucking a lock of her choppy brown hair behind her ear. "Would you rather my mom dress you? She would probably make you wear a corset or something."

Jason laughed harshly, still adjusting his shirt. "I don't know if that would be better or worse."

"Worse, way worse," Piper confirmed, walking around the table to stand beside the blonde. She brought the glass up to her lips and with her other hand, pointed at a woman who was wearing a fancy red dress that looked like it came out of an Alexander McQueen catalogue. (Don't ask how he knew who that was.)

"That's my mom," Piper told Jason and if he were drinking something at the moment, he totally would've done a spit take.

"Aphrodite, the number one supermodel in the world, is your mom?" He asked, shocked. Piper shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal that her mother was on the cover of every posh magazine on the shelf.

Leo popped up beside them, laughing. "What happened to you, Piper? Didn't get the pretty gene?"

She rolled her eyes and sent Leo a look over the top of her glass. "I might be wearing a dress, but I can still kick your ass, Valdez."

"Shh, don't let mommy hear you curse. She might give you a make-over - "

"Wait," Piper held up a hand and both boys sent her curious glances. She nudged the Jason with an elbow. "Who's the hottie checking you out, Jason?"

"Where?" He asked, looking around.

"At four o'clock."

He peeked over his right shoulder, past Leo and Piper, to see Nico leaning against a wall. (Seriously, every time Jason saw him he was leaning against something.) He still wore all black, but he had traded the leather aviator jacket for a tuxedo jacket - still black, of course. It was almost as if he was trying to blend in with the shadows, trying not to draw attention to himself.

Nico gave him the most minicule nod, his lips curling upwards in a smirk.

"He's totally into you." Piper said.

"I have an almost boyfriend," Jason pointed out, though he couldn't resist sneaking one more glance in Nico's direction.

"I'll take him off of your hands, then," said Leo, running his hands through his unruly dark curls. "How do I look?" He asked the two.

Jason gave him a thumbs up while Piper shrugged, indifferent. "You look like you always do," she commented off-handedly.

"I'm guessing smoking hot!" He winked and then sauntered over to Nico, immediately engaging in conversation. Jason watched the two interact, Leo moving his hand dramatically as he tried to get his point across and Nico nodding along to whatever shit Leo was babbling on about. Honestly, it was weird seeing Leo trying to flirt with someone, since his face would turn beet red every other five sentences and he looked like he was suffering from a sugar high. Jason smiled to himself before returning his attention back to Piper, who was currently spiking the punch with the flask of liquor she had hidden in her purse. It was her way of "spicing things up a bit."

Piper sighed, turning to Jason with an annoyed look on her face. "This is why I didn't want to come with Leo. He always ditches me." She poured herself a cup of spiked punch before saying, "He's also the reason I need lots of alcohol."

Before he could open his mouth, Aphrodite was walking up to them with a beaming smile on her face. "Piper!" She exclaimed, engulfing her daughter in a hug that smelled of Chanel No. 5. "How are you, dear?" She asked, pulling away.

"I'm going to go," Jason said awkwardly, attempting to leave. He could sense they needed some mother-daughter bonding time from the way Piper was avoiding her mom's gaze.

"No!" Piper latched onto his arm, pulling him back to her side. Aphrodite looked between the two teens. "No, because I have to, uh, introduce you to my mom, Aphrodite. Aphrodite, this is Jason."

"Are you Piper's boyfriend?"

They both almost choked, shaking their heads and muttering incoherent things. 

"I'm gonna need some more punch." Piper said.

"I'm just a friend." Jason answered as Piper downed the bit of punch she had left in her cup and got more.

"Oh?" Aphrodite raised an eyebrow, giving them a tight-lipped smile.

"Yeah," Jason nodded.

"Yeah," Piper said.

The awkwardness between the trio was growing increasingly more... awkward.

And then Jason's phone rang and he almost jumped for joy. He meekly said excuse me and stepped outside to answer the call, which was from an unknown number.

"Hello," he said, "who's this?"

"Annabeth." 

Jason frowned. "How did you get my number?"

"Percy's phone," she said as if it explained everything. "Anyways, I just called to let you know that Percy is supposed to wake up soon. Like tonight, maybe."

"Tonight?" He repeated, feeling his heart swell up with joy. He felt like thanking whatever god existed or maybe even crying. Mostly the former.

"Yeah."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as possible."

Annabeth said okay and he hung up, running back to Piper, who was still having a conversation with her mom. Jason told her what Annabeth had said and Piper immediately perked up, offering him a ride, much to her mother's disappointment. Jason chastised her for leaving her mother all alone when she was so excited to speak to her. Piper just shrugged in response, saying, "She'll get over it."

After what felt like an eternity, they finally made it to the hospital and Jason ran up to the third floor, throwing open the room door, his heart hammering in his chest as his eyes met Percy's sea green ones. And then he noticed that Annabeth was lying on the bed, next to Percy, holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder.

Like a couple.

 _Fuck_ , Jason cursed. _They so did hook up_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my apologies for not updating sooner


	13. with a taste of a poison paradise

The smell of antiseptic, white blinding light, and the soft beeps of a machine were the first things Percy was aware of as he woke up, blinking slowly. It took a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust to the bright light and as they did, he saw a pair of familiar grey eyes and blonde princess curls. 

Moaning, Percy leaned over the bed and began to dry heave, his throat dry and scratchy. He felt fingers carding through his hair in a way that was supposed to feel comforting, but made him only feel more naseous. It felt like his heart was trying to claw its way out of his chest. Unfortunately, there was no word in the English dictionary to describe that feeling.

"Percy?" Annabeth said. "Are you okay?"

Percy's sassy side felt like saying, " _If your definition of okay is just waking up from a freaking coma and feeling like complete shit and waking up to my devil of an ex, then yes_." But he didn't have the mind or energy to get those words out, so he just let out a noise that sounded like a dying hippo.

He watched helplessly as Annabeth ran out into the hallway and flagged down the nearest nurse. He could hear her yelling for them to get a doctor, spewing out orders like she was a doctor herself. She could've been, considering how smart she was. Well, in some aspects, at least. She appeared back in the doorway, walking up to the bed and taking his hand in hers. Percy wanted to snatch his hand away, but he didn't have the energy to do that either. He hadn't eaten in days, he smelled like puke, and the first person he'd ever loved and had his heart broken by was holding his hand like he was the only thing that mattered to her.

And Percy knew that that was a complete lie.

The doctor strolled into the room at that moment. He was an older looking man with salt and pepper hair and a receding hairline. He also looked like he had drinking a dozen cups of coffee just to keep him up for the night, resembling something of Albert Einstein with the way he hair stuck up like he'd been electrocuted and the wire-rimmed glasses that sat firmly on the bridge of his nose.

As the doctor told Annabeth about Percy's condition - he was stable enough to be moved out of the intensive care unit - the green-eyed boy felt himself drifting away little by little as if he was being blown by the wind. Grey eyes connected with green just one more time before Percy let him succumb himself to the darkness that was starting to overwhelm him.

* * *

The next time Percy came to, he felt the dip in the bed beside him, the cause being a body laying on the bed next to him, their legs pressed together from the hip down. He turned his head to see Annabeth laying beside him, her eyes focused so intently on the book she was reading that she didn't notice he was wide awake and watching her.

Being this close to Annabeth, Percy noticed all the things that had changed about her since he had last seen her.

Annabeth's hair was now more strawberry blonde than honey blonde, little tendrils of hair framing her face naturally and effortlessly in the way most girls took hours to do. Her cheeks were tinged with pink instead of the red he was used to and her eyes,  _oh God_ , those eyes. He missed those eyes so much. He missed the way they turned to a lighter shade whenever she laughed or teased him, the color of the clouds after a rainstorm. He missed the way they turned dark like the smoke of a fire when she was angry.

Most of all, Percy just missed her in general. The smell of her strawberry shampoo. Her dainty fingers intertwined with his. When she called him Seaweed Brain.

But the memories of those times also brought the heartache with it, too. The feeling like he was being strangled till the world was spinning below his feet and the thudding of his heart was a loud rhythm in his ears as she said those godforsaken words.

" _It's over, Percy_."

And then tossed him to the side as if he were trash that deserved to be left on the curb.

The only thing was, when Monday came around and the garbage truck left, Percy was still sitting there on the curb outside of her apartment building. He had wanted to go back into her apartment to give her one last confession of his love and try to convince her that they were worth a second try.  _That you couldn't just throw away a love like theirs._

And then Percy saw her enter her apartment with Luke. The same Luke who was the quarterback of Olympus. The same Luke who he had to pretend he didn't hate because he stole his Wise Girl and made her change schools to avoid him. And up until now, Percy thought he had moved onto something bigger and better that was named Jason Grace, but when his eyes met Annabeth's, time stopped and he found himself wanting to brush her hair behind her ear like old times, even though he knew he couldn't.

Because things were different.

Because she didn't love him anymore.

"Um," Annabeth said, looking away quickly. "You're probably thirsty."

She reached over to pick up a cup of water from the bedside table, turning to fully face him. "Drink," she commanded as she held the cup to his awaiting lips.

When he was done, Percy licked chapped lips, his throat feeling a lot less dry. "Thanks," he said, though it might have came out more sarcastic than he wanted it to.

Annabeth blinked in surprise, like he had slapped her with his words. She wrung her hands together and looked at him with a expression that resembled guilt. Percy would've been lying if he said some sadistic part of him was smiling in satisfaction.

"Look," she started, her eyes turning so dark they were almost black. "I'm sorry, Percy. I know that I hurt you a lot - "

"That's an understatement." He snapped, interrupting her. "You broke my heart, Annabeth. I've let my guard up and it's going to take a lot to make me trust you again."

"I know, Percy," she nodded, curls falling from the loose bun at the crown of her head. "I know. I've been replaced with Jason."

_No, you haven't_ , Percy thought bitterly. He shut his eyes tightly and held he breath before letting it out like his counselor from anger management had told him to do.  _In for one. Out for three._

Feeling the tension leave his body, Percy opened his eyes, meeting Annabeth's grey ones. He plastered an indifferent look on his face, the mask he often wore. "Can you get me some dinner?" He asked nonchalantly. "I'm hungry."

"Percy, you can't just change the subject. We've got to talk about this eventually." Annabeth insisted.

"No, we don't. I'm done with this conversation."

"Percy," she said softly, taking his hand again. His skin burned from her touch. "Look at me."

He did.

"I know you're dating Jason, but I still want to have you in my life, even if that means as a friend. When you left, everything changed. I didn't have anyone to talk to when Luke broke up with me because my best friend was gone. Do you think going to a new college and making new friends was easy? And not having someone to vent to at the end of the day?" Annabeth asked him, her voice cracking a bit. "God, I just...  _I just miss you, Percy_."

He became too aware of their proximity to each other. Annabeth's body was pressed against his so that she could look at him. Her face was so close, her nose was barely brushing his. He could smell the mint on her breath. And wait - did she say dating Jason? Percy was definitely _not_   _dating Jason._ Maybe he was hallucinating this whole scenario. If he pinched himself, he had to wake up from this horrible dream he was having.

"Percy. Can you stop self-mutilating yourself and say something?" Annabeth asked. "Anything?"

Percy wished he could say something,  _anything_. It was like he was in quicksand. The more he thought about Annabeth and what to say, the worse the situation got. It was taking all of his willpower to not say yes and kiss her like he'd wanted to for the past six months. It was crazy how she still had this affect on him, even after all this time.

He reached out a hand, brushing a strand of her hair out of her face. She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and Percy remembered them in this position eight months ago. Him pressing his thumb against her lips and kissing her like his life depended on it. Even though he knew it was probably the worst decision in mankind, he leaned in.

Just before their lips could meet, Percy heard a small intake of air. His brows crinkled together before realizing the sound had not come from Annabeth, but rather, somewhere behind him.

Percy's eyes suddenly drifted to the door, catching sight of Jason. Piper was standing behind the blond, grabbing his hand to try to pull him out of the room. Jason remained rooted there, eyes widened and mouth agape. It must've looked naughty to him, the way that he and Annabeth looked - close enough to kiss and his hand resting on her jean-clad hips.

Fuck.

Percy tried to sit up, but the wires tangled around his arms and his chest were keeping him strapped down to the bed.

"I can explain," he said desperately, shaking Annabeth off of him and reaching for the only blond that should matter to him right now. "It's not what it looks like."

It's funny how that was what everyone said when they were caught doing something that they shouldn't be doing.

Jason took a step back into Piper and let the girl tug him out of the room.

"Wait!" Percy called desperately. He thrashed around, trying to get out of the mess he was in - both literally and figuratively.

Jason didn't even glance over his shoulder not once.

Percy held his head in his hands, pulling his hair at the roots. He felt a hand on his back that was tracing patterns through the thin material of the hospital gown. He glared at the blonde girl beside him, his eyes churning like the angry ocean. It was her fault. Everything was her fault.

If she hadn't broken up with him, they wouldn't be in this position right now. He'd be in New York with her, living in an overpriced apartment in the Financial District and studying at NYU were they would spend the time in between classes making out in the secluded area of the library. He wouldn't be confused about his sexuality or whether she wanted to be with him or not. Things were too complicated and he just couldn't handle them because life was not turning out how he planned. He needed a break, space, anything to clear the thoughts running rapidly through his mind.

"Get out," Percy snarled. 

"But - "

"Get out!" He yelled much louder than he needed to considering she was laying beside him.

Annabeth flinched, slinking away from him. She slid off the bed and gathered her bag off the chair in the corner of the hospital room. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she settled him with her steely gaze.

She paused before saying, "You should call him."

And if that wasn't the smartest thing to come out of those rose pink lips, then Percy didn't know what was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two updates in one week whaaaat? jk. i already had most of this written.


	14. don't you know that you're toxic

"Rachel." Percy whined when the red head appeared at the doorway to his hospital room. She was wearing her usual torn jeans that was covered in paint splatters and a tie-dye hoodie that had looked like it'd seen one too many days.Percy looked up at her from where he laying on the bed, saying. "I fucked up. Again."

"Again?" she asked, taking the seat beside his bed. "I guess this makes it the - what? - one millionth time you fucked up. Please, tell me more."

"You're such a bitch."

"And you look like shit, Jackson. I'm pretty sure one of the nurses thinks you're actually a dead body."

"Wow, fuck you, too." Percy groaned from laughing. He draped his arm over his face. "MMhhmm hmms mhhh."

"Can you speak English please?"

Percy removed his arm and glared at her. "Jason hates me."

"Um, I'm pretty sure he's actually in love with you."

"Well, he seems to think that Annabeth and I hooked up."

"Did you, though?" Rachel asked, eyebrows lifting. "And why is she here anyway? Did you call her all the way here for interstate quickie?"

"My mom sent her."

"Yikes," Rachel said. It felt nice to have another person in his life that hated her as much as he did. He was glad he finally had someone else to talk to besides Annabeth. The conversations between them lately had been filled with awkward silences and basically not knowing how to repair the broken relationship between them.

"For the record," Percy said, "we didn't hook up. We just ... almost kissed." Percy hoped his pathetic-ness didn't come across too strong.

"As if that's any better. You should tell him the truth and not let him beat himself up over something that didn't even happen."

Percy pouted. "He won't answer my calls."

"Then you should see him."

"I don't know if you noticed, but I'm kind of hospitalized." Percy sassed. She rolled her eyes, shoving his leg.

"Seriously," Rachel said. "Visit him. Surprise him. Do whatever you have to do to get him to talk to you. You have to go to him because he sure as hell won't come to you."

Percy opened his mouth to respond, but then Annabeth was walking into the room, holding a tray of food. Behind her, Rachel pulled a face. "Here," the blond girl said to Percy, handing him his food, "I got you a burrito bowl from Chipotle."

"With guac?" He asked, making grabby hands for a fork.

"Of course."

"You disgust me." Rachel muttered.

Annabeth whipped her head around to stare intently at the red-headed. Rachel looked up from the strand of hair she was inspecting between her two fingers. "Oh, not you, _Annabel_. I meant Percy, eating meat or whatever. Because I'm a vegan." She said.

"Thanks for the food," Percy said, trying to hide his smirk. Annabeth wasn't dumb and he was sure that once Rachel left, she'd pester him about hanging out with the red-head. Annabeth had never really liked Rachel. He guessed it was a girl thing.

"Well!" Rachel stood up from the seat. "I'm going to leave now." She moved over to hug Percy, whispering in his ear, "I really hate her."

He laughed, pulling away. "Thanks for stopping by, Rach." 

"My pleasure," she said, then looked back at Annabeth. "See you around, _Annamarie_."

The blonde stabbed her fork into her chicken, glaring daggers. "It's Annabeth."

"Potato, potahtoe," Rachel shrugged as she backed out of the room. Her gazed returned back to Percy, leveling him with a glare. "You better do what I told you, Jackson."

"Yeah, yeah, got you, Dare."

The red-head girl threw up deuces and then was practically running down the hallway.

Once Rachel had cleared the room, Annabeth said, "I really hate her."

Percy almost choked on his water from laughing.

* * *

 One week and a hundred missed calls later, Percy returned back to campus. 

Apparently, everyone thought it was cool how he blacked out in the middle of a meet, so rather than being the university's disappointment, people came up to him giving him kudos. Percy was mostly glad that he wasn't stuck in his stupid hospital room. He had fresh air and the freedom to use the bathroom without help. The downfalls?

Well, for one, Annabeth had transferred to Olympus University. Her and his mom thought that someone needed to keep an eye on Percy so he didn't have another health decline. (He was known to have the worst diet ever.) So, not only was his now going to school with his ex, but Jason was still not speaking to him. Some small part of him thought that once he'd gotten out of the hospital, Jason would've come to check up on him. Percy, however, was highly disappointed.

He'd thought about letting Jason go, but then he remembered what Rachel had told him.  _You have to go to him because he sure as hell won't come to you._ He spent his entire first day back searching the campus for the blond boy but turned up empty-handed. The next day, he'd gone to Piper, who reluctantly told him that Jason was in the library.

Percy walked into the library, which was new territory for him considering he avoided any building that had to do with learning at all costs, and spotted what, or who, he was looking for. A familiar blond head sitting at a table with headphones in. Percy sat down, placing his backpack on the ground and rested his elbows on the table, head in his hands as he waited for Jason to take notice of him. The blond had in his headphones and was staring intently at his work. Percy had been sitting there for five minutes (what really felt like hours) and almost thought Jason hadn't notice him until Jason said, "Do you have to sit here?"  And despite the fact that he came off as if he didn't want to talk to Percy, he still pulled out one headphone.

Percy, ever the attention whore, perked up. "I actually prefer to sit with people who actually answer my calls," he said, "but I suppose this seat will do."

Jason rolled his eyes in response.

Percy sighed. "We need to talk."

"No, we don't."

 _Okay, maybe a different approach then_ , Percy thought. He leaned forward in his seat to examine the scribbles in Jason's notebook. It was mostly a bunch of numbers, Greek letters, and symbols his brain couldn't even begin to comprehend. He wrinkled his nose. "Is that Calculus?"

Instead of giving him the answer he was looking for, Jason fisted the pencil in his hand. His jaw was clenched tightly and even if Percy was complete shit at social skills, he could tell that Jason was not particularly enjoying the conversation between them. "Okay," Jason said. "If we're gonna talk, can we skip past the small talk part and get to talking about the things that matter?"

"Things like what?" Percy asked, feigning ignorance, which only proceeded to make the blond angrier. Normally, Jason was quiet, calm, and reserved, but at this specific instance, he was the opposite. 

"Like the fact that you hooked up with your ex." Jason said loudly enough for the whole library to hear. Percy's jaw dropped and from somewhere behind them, somebody (probably some freshman who actually still cared about the school's rules) shushed them.

"We just - I -" Percy couldn't even form a coherent sentence. Jason thought that he and Annabeth had hooked up? Ha. As if he would sleep with the devil. Yeah, right. Okay, so maybe they had been about to kiss. That didn't change the way Percy felt about her - he still thought he was a complete bitch. And why would Jason care so much unless -

"Why?" Percy questioned, leaning forward. He raised an eyebrow, sea green eyes glinting in the sunlight as he asked, "Are you so jealous, Grace?"

"No." Jason shoved his headphone back in.

"You are _so_ jealous."

"I'm really not."

 Percy narrowed his eyes. "So you're not jealous at all?"

"No."

 "Shhhhh!" somebody whispered. Percy flipped them off over his shoulder.

"Percy, I need to study." Jason said, gesturing to the open textbook and notes before him. Percy rolled his eyes. As if Jason needed to study. He could pass his test with his eyes closed.

"I'm, uh, getting the feeling you don't want to talk to me."

"Did it ever occur to you that the world doesn't revolve around Percy Jackson and that maybe, just maybe, I actually don't want to be talking to you right now?"

"First of all, both of those statements are false. And secondly, why are you being so difficult?"

 "Because!" Jason said. "You slept with your ex and didn't even have the courage to tell me that you still had feelings for her. Like, do you want a gold star for leading me on or something?"

Percy suddenly felt like a douche. Did Jason really think that he was just leading him on? Because Percy was pretty sure that he actually cared about Jason enough to not lead him on. The feelings he had for him weren't fake. He really did like Jason and thought that maybe he'd get to the point where he loved Jason. 

"Is that what you think?"

"Yeah, that's what I really think. You're just like any other guy I ever met, just desperate to get laid. No wonder your dad didn't show up to your meet. He was probably too disappointed in you."

How dare Jason say that? He _knew_ Percy and he knew that his dad had never really supported him in anything ever. What Jason said struck a chord in Percy, so deep that his brain stopped working and his impulsiveness took over.  Before he could register the words coming out of his mouth, he was saying, "So what if Annabeth and I hooked up? It's not like we were dating anyway."

"You know what?" Jason said, slamming his notebook closed. percy watched as he began to shove his things into his bag, saying, "You're right. We're weren't dating, we weren't anything at all, so you do whatever you want with your love life, okay? I don't care. I'm not going to force you into a relationship you don't want to be in. And you have history with her, so pick her. Choose her. I don't fucking care." 

"Okay, fine. Whatever." Percy shrugged, trying to come off as indifferent. 

"Shut the fuck up!" someone yelled to them loudly. "I'm trying to fuckin' study here."

"Don't worry," Jason said, speaking to the voice but looking directly into Percy's eyes. "I was just leaving. Fuck you, Jackson."

Percy knew he should've ran after Jason, but he was a little shit and too prideful to admit when he'd done wrong, so he crossed his arms over his chest and watched stubbornly as Jason finished packing up his things and left the library. And once the blond left, that's when he realized the whole point of coming to the library. He had intended to tell Jason that he hadn't hooked up with Annabeth. That there was nothing going on between them.

But it was too late for that. There was no repairing the damage that had been caused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had an idea for this chapter so i just had to write it. i feel like i've been updating way too much this week, haha. i probably won't post next week because finals and just life in general :)


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